British Oscar-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson, best known for his role in The Full Monty, has died aged 75, his family have announced. He played Gerald Arthur Cooper in the 1997 comedy about a group of redundant steelworkers from Sheffield who set up an all-male striptease act, receiving a Bafta for best supporting actor for his performance. Wilkinson reprised the role of Gerald for a 2023 Disney+ series revisiting the characters 26 years on. The actor had more than 130 film and TV credits including the 1998 romcom Shakespeare in Love, Christopher Nolan’s 2005 superhero film Batman Begins, The Grand Budapest Hotel and Girl with a Pearl Earring.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/30/full-monty-actor-tom-wilkinson-dies-aged-75

Michael Rhodes <mig73allenford2002@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

>British Oscar-nominated actor Tom Wilkinson, best known for his role in
>The Full Monty, has died aged 75, his family have announced. He played
>Gerald Arthur Cooper in the 1997 comedy about a group of redundant
>steelworkers from Sheffield who set up an all-male striptease act,
>receiving a Bafta for best supporting actor for his performance.
>Wilkinson reprised the role of Gerald for a 2023 Disney+ series
>revisiting the characters 26 years on. The actor had more than 130 film
>and TV credits including the 1998 romcom Shakespeare in Love,
>Christopher Nolan's 2005 superhero film Batman Begins, The Grand
>Budapest Hotel and Girl with a Pearl Earring.

>https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/dec/30/full-monty-actor-tom-wilkinson-dies-aged-75

I'm not going to read that obit, sorry. It's clear that the writer knew
vaguely that he was in a number of very popular movies but truly didn't
know the actor.

He had one of those faces throughout much of his career that he was some
unknown age but always between 40 and 65. He'd been married for a very
long time. He and his wife no longer loved each other but they were so
indifferent that neither was motivated to fix their relationship. The
marriage had fallen about years earlier. He was seeing someone else. In
a few movies, the wife was seeing someone else. Maybe they knew the
other one was seeing someone else but there was unlikely to be much
jealousy.

He didn't usually get divorced. I'm actually not sure he got divorced in
a movie.

His character was unhappy at the beginning and when the movie was over,
he was still unhappy.

The fights between husband and wife: The actress playing the wife chews
scenery. He responds laconically. That she has never been able to get
the reaction from him that she wants, she chews the scenery even harder.

If you see him in a movie, you'll recognize him immediately. "Oh yeah.
That guy." Then you'll forget the actor's name till the next movie.

He was a good actor. Not that anyone cares about my opinion, I thought
he was in a rut. He was certainly able to make a good living by playing
the same character over and over and over again.