REMEMBERING ROBERT URQUHART : BORN TODAY 1921

REMEMBERING Robert Urquhart. 'Quiet, well-read and a lover of classical music, Robert Urquhart was an actor who grew frustrated with his career as he grew older. It was, he bemoaned, an honorable profession but so much of the material he was offered did not deserve any respect...' Robert Urquhart Obituary. 'The Independent' newspaper, 24th March 1995.

In the early 1950's Urquhart was building himself quite a reputation for his theatre work. A reputation that would eventually bring him to the attention of studio casting agents and land him supporting roles on the big screen. But it was in the medium of film, that Urquhart was not such a happy chap...

That one film was 'The Curse of Frankenstein' with Peter Cushing in 1957 for Hammer film. He detested it. It is said he left the premier screening, refused to make appearances to promote it and only in the last years of his revived career on television, could he find the stomach to even mention it, if it was brought up in interviews.

By 1980, Urquhart had cooled off a little..and appeared in another Hammer production, the Hammer House of Horror' television series, in an episode entitled, - Children of the Full Moon. However, we remember him today for his sterling performance in The Curse of Frankenstein'! 

QUICK GUIDE: CREATING PARTNERSHIP: PETER CUSHING AND ROBERT URQUHART COLOUR CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN

CAST:

Peter Cushing (Baron Victor Frankenstein), Robert Urquhart (Paul Krempe), Hazel Court (Elizabeth), Christopher Lee (The Creature), Valerie Gaunt (Justine), Melvyn Hayes (Young Victor), Paul Hardtmuth (Professor Bernstein) 

PRODUCTION:

Director – Terence Fisher, Screenplay – Jimmy Sangster, Based on the Novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Producer – Anthony Hinds, Photography – Jack Asher, Music – James Bernard, Music Director – John Hollingsworth, Makeup – Phil Leakey, Production Design – Bernard Robinson. Production Company – Hammer/Clarion Films.  

SYNOPSIS:

In a jail cell waiting to be hanged, Baron Victor Frankenstein tells his story to a priest. At a young age, he inherited his father’s estate and he and his tutor Paul Krempe pursued a fascination with medical science. Frankenstein then conceived a plan to revive a body from the dead. He used the corpse of a hanged highwayman and built the perfect body using parts pieced together from other bodies, including pushing the aging Professor Bernstein off a balcony in order to get a good brain. Krempe parted ways with Frankenstein in horror at what he was doing. In attempting to perfect his experiment, Frankenstein was forced to increasingly more ruthless extremes.