Screen Legend David Warner Dies

David Warner, Known For ‘Titanic’ ‘Tron’, ‘The Omen’ and More, Dies Aged 80

The seasoned British actor was known for a wide variety of villains, heroes and others in movies such as ‘Time Bandits’, ‘Time After Time’ and ‘Straw Dogs’ has died.

David Warner as John Leslie Stevenson/Jack the Ripper in 1979's 'Time After Time.'

David Warner might have been known for creating memorable movie villains, but the talented, humble British actor proved in a long and varied career that he could do so much more. Warner died this weekend aged 80.

Born in Manchester in 1941, his upbringing was turbulent, torn between different towns and schools as his father moved between jobs. His parents’ separation didn’t help either, and Warner came close to a life of crime.

Yet thanks to a teacher who mentored him and sparked a passion for performance, he scored a place at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Following that, he began a long, fruitful theatre career at the Royal Court in 1962, rising up the ranks in Shakespearian productions before he was recruited the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon in 1963.

Film and TV work also beckoned, and Warner made his movie debut in 1963’s ‘Tom Jones’, which starred Albert Finney. That launched a healthy career on the big screen, with credits in an incredible mix of movies including ‘Nightwing’, ‘Straw Dogs’, ‘The Ballad of Cable Hogue’, ‘Cross of Iron’, ‘The Man with Two Brains’, ‘Waxwork’, ‘In the Mouth of Madness’, ‘Scream 2’, and his final work on the big screen, ‘Mary Poppins Returns’, in which he plays Admiral Boom.

A chameleon throughout his career, Warner was equally at home bringing nuance to uptight officials, cackling villains and, in 1976's original ‘The Omen’, a photojournalist whose investigation leads to an iconic encounter with a deadly pane of glass. In 1979’s ‘Time after Time’, he was the threat, playing a friend of H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) who turns out to be Jack the Ripper.

David Warner as Spicer Lovejoy in 1997's 'Titanic.'

For 1982’s ‘Tron’, he played several linked roles: villainous business executive Ed Dillinger, the voice of the Master Control Program and Sark, the leader of the MCP’s Army. ‘Time Bandits’ fans know him as the villain simply called Evil and chewing the scenery with fitting aplomb.

‘Star Trek’ fans, on the other hand, know him for several different roles: that of drunken Federation official St. John Talbot in ‘Star Trek V: The Final Frontier’, Klingon Chancellor Gorkon in ‘Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country’ and, most memorably on the small screen, as the strict Cardassian torturer Gul Madred in the two-part ‘Chain Of Command’ from ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’.

He had two screen trips on the ill-fated RMS Titanic, first in 1970 TV movie ‘S.O.S. Titanic’ and then in the slightly better known 1997 James Cameron movie, in which he played Spicer Lovejoy, sneery right-hand-man and fixer for Billy Zane’s Caledon Hockley.

Warner died Sunday from a cancer-related illness at Denville Hall, a care home for those who have worked in entertainment.

“Over the past 18 months he approached his diagnosis with a characteristic grace and dignity,” his family said in a statement given to the BBC. He will be missed hugely by us, his friends, and remembered as a kind-hearted, generous and compassionate man, partner and father, whose legacy of extraordinary work has touched the lives of so many over the years. We are heartbroken.”