Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...Ubiquitous British actor Michael Byrne has died. The Shakespearean performer who appeared in films including “A Bridge Too Far,” “Braveheart,” “The Saint,” “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” and “Gangs of New York” was 82, according to The Guardian.
U.S. movie audiences largely recognize Byrne for his role as Nazi Col. Ernst Vogel in 1989’s “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” He rivaled Harrison Ford’s famous title character. He and Ford previously worked together on 1978’s “Force 10 from Navarone” in which Byrne also played a Nazi at odds with Ford’s protagonist. Byrne’s villainous characters didn’t live to see the end of either of those films.
Byrne reportedly got his start in 1963, when he worked with Sir Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre Company at London’s Old Vic theater. He took the stage at the Bristol Old Vic in 2010 to play the male lead in “Juliet and Her Romeo.”
Byrne’s stage credits included “Death and the Maiden” at London’s Royal Court and “Much Ado About Nothing” at the National Theatre. He also appeared in a 1967 TV movie version of that William Shakespeare play,
He is survived by his wife, Carole, their two daughters, and three grandchildren. No cause of death was reported.