Actors - Barry Foster

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	Actors - Barry Foster

Barry Foster born in Beeston, Nottinghamshire on 21 August, 1931, died 11 February, 2002, of a heart attack while being cared for at the Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford.

He is best known for his role as the TV detective in the five-series-long ITV program Van der Valk that spanned 20 years. Early in his life, Foster had worked as a plastics chemist before embarking on a career in acting. Foster trained as an actor at the Central School of Speech and Drama in London, arriving there at the age of 20, a little older than the other students. It was here he became friends with an actor called David Baron, better known as playwright Harold Pinter. Foster would go on to appear in two of Pinter's plays, The Basement and The Tea Party. Foster's professional stage debut came in 1952 as 'Lorenzo' in The Merchant of Venice
, then in 1955 he made his London stage debut. His first film role came in 1956 in the war film Battle of the River Plate. Over the years, he played in a wide variety of Film and Television roles, including David Lean's epic Ryan's Daughter
, Battle of Britain
, King and Country, The Troubleshooters, The Family Way, The Wild Geese
, Robbery
, Sweeney! and Inspector Clouseau up to his final film Rancid Aluminium in 2000.

But it was in 1972 that he was to play two memorable roles, on opposite sides of the law. First was cynical Dutch detective Van der Valk and second was Bob Rusk, the necktie murderer in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy
- Rusk, a seemingly charming man, intent on pinning his murders onto his best friend - but not succeeding. Van Der Valk would resurface twice more in his career, in 1977 and once more in the early 1990s. Shortly after the third series in 1978, Foster was to take on the role of the most famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, in a series of radio appearances for the BBC. He recorded 13 episodes of the Holmes canon, with David Buck as Watson. His marriage to singer and actress Judith Shergold was a long and happy one; the couple were married for 40 years. His daughters Miranda and Joanna are both actresses, but his son Jason has not gone into acting. After Foster's death, a trust was set up, The Barry Foster Memorial Appeal to help disabled children become involved in the theatre. At the time of his death, Barry Foster was appearing in a run of the play Art alongside Nigel Havers and Roger Lloyd Pack.

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Actors - Barry Foster

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