Ben Cross

The Mud of the Olympic Games

Before entering the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, Ben Cross cleaned windows and worked as a carpenter. He was 22 years old and had a determination that sometimes made his classmates uncomfortable.

In 1977, he landed a supporting role in A Bridge Too Far. That gave him enough money to get by while he waited for the script that would change his bank account forever.

And that script arrived in 1981.

In 1981 he played Harold Abrahams in Chariots of Fire. The film won four Academy Awards and pushed Cross to run along the beaches of Scotland until he was physically exhausted. That role as a Jewish athlete facing the British establishment brought him a level of visibility no actor of his profile had experienced before.

But massive success in film doesn't always guarantee a linear career at the major studios. After the release, he preferred to return to the stage rather than take on empty contracts in Los Angeles. Cross always had a tense relationship with the more commercial side of the entertainment industry.

The Shadow of the Hired Villain

During the 1980s, he took part in television projects such as The Citadel in 1983. In 1991, he took on the challenge of playing Barnabas Collins in the remake of Dark Shadows. Critics were not kind to the series, but his portrayal of the melancholy vampire kept audiences glued to their TVs for a full season.

In 1995, he played Prince Malagant in First Knight. He shared the screen with Sean Connery and Richard Gere in a production that cost 75 million dollars at the time. There, he discovered that his angular build and deep voice were a perfect fit for the cold villain mold.

But Hollywood has a very short memory.

In the late nineties, his name appeared less often on the posters of major productions. So he decided to move to Bulgaria to make genre films and mid-budget series. In 2004, he appeared in Exorcist: The Beginning, and a year later in The Mechanik alongside Dolph Lundgren.

Refuge in Genre Productions

In 2009, J.J. Abrams called him to bring Sarek to life in the reboot of Star Trek. Playing Spock's father brought him back into contact with the wider public and fan conventions. Cross shot his scenes in just a few days, but his presence added the gravity the Vulcan storyline needed.

And the gamble paid off.

In 2013 he joined the cast of the series Banshee, playing Ukrainian gangster Rabbit. It was a physically demanding, violent role that he filmed in his sixties. In 2018 he appeared in The Hurricane Heist, showing he didn't mind working in pure action flicks as long as the paycheck was reasonable.

In 2020, he finished shooting the horror film The Devil’s Light shortly before his health dramatically declined. He also recorded his scenes for The Last Letter from Your Lover, which was released posthumously on digital platforms in 2021.

Ben Cross died in Vienna on August 18, 2020, at age 72 after a brief illness. His family confirmed that he passed away just one week after finishing his last international shoot.