Ian Charleson

Ian Charleson never felt comfortable with the label of British heartthrob. His casting as Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire in 1981 was not the result of a master plan to conquer Hollywood. In fact, the Scottish actor spent more time obsessed with vocal technique than with endorsement deals.

And the gamble paid off.

That shoot on the beaches of St Andrews demanded an exhausting physical preparation, but what really interested him was the character's faith. Charleson was a man of quiet nuances. In 1982 he took part in Gandhi under the direction of Richard Attenborough. There he played Reverend Charlie Andrews and showed he could hold his own with the industry's biggest names without breaking a sweat.

A Refuge on the London Stage

Film paid the bills, but theater gave him his life. Before shooting any scene, he preferred to rehearse for weeks on end at the National Theatre. In 1986 he starred in a production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that is still remembered in London's theater circles for its raw intensity.

He had no taste for empty fame.

He often turned down scripts that tried to exploit his image as a blond, athletic hero. But his biggest challenge came in 1989 when he agreed to play Hamlet at the National Theatre under the direction of Richard Eyre. That production was an exercise in human endurance that few people knew in depth beyond his inner circle.

Charleson was living with AIDS during the rehearsals for that play.

A Quiet Farewell

No one in the audience noticed that the actor reciting Shakespeare's soliloquies was fighting a terminal battle. His performance as Hamlet in 1989 received reviews praising a technical maturity unmatched by others of his generation. Only his castmates knew he barely had the strength to finish the performances.

He died on January 6, 1990.

His death led to a shift in public perception of the disease in the United Kingdom. He was the first high-profile public figure to request that an official announcement state he had died of AIDS-related causes. He wanted to remove the stigma through brutal honesty. In 1991, the Ian Charleson Awards were created to honor the best classical actors under 30 years old.

The award is still presented every year in London. In Portobello Cemetery in Edinburgh, a simple headstone bears his name and the exact dates of his life. The prize money of the award that carries his name is funded by the royalties from his earlier works.