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Charles Kay
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Charles Kay

Charles Kay, who plays Count Orsini-Rosenberg, the bespectacled and disapproving official censor at the Court of Joseph II in Amadeus, gave up a career as dental surgeon to train at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he was awarded the Bancroft Gold Medal.

A versatile actor whose stage, screen and television credits in England number nearly a hundred, Charles Kay has appeared on the stage in Arnold Wesker's Roots, John Osborne's Luther, C.P. Snow's The New Man before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company (1963-1967) for major roles in Twelfth Night, Henry V, Henry VII, Loves Labours Lost, The Merchant of Venice, A Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, and Peter Hall's Wars of the Roses.

Kay then joined the National Theatre Company for roles in the all-male production of As You Like It, Brecht's Edward II, National Health and Danton's Death in which he played Robespierre.

He performed the title role of Tartuffe with the Actors Company at the Edinburgh Festival of 1974, and directed the same play in their following season. In 1976 he toured extensively in the Far East, Australia and New Zealand with The Hollow Crown and Pleasure and Repentance. Charles Kay is with The Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Kay's film credits include The Deadly Affair for Sidney Lumet, and Nijinsky. His numerous BBC Television credits include roles in such prestigious series as I, Claudius, The Citadel, To Serve Them All My Days and To the Manor Born and the BBC-TV production of King John. Most recent film and TV appearances are: Beautiful People, Unnatural Selection, Law and Disorder, and Goodnight Mister Tom."


Note: This profile was written in or before 2002.

Charles Kay Facts

Birth Name Charles Piff
OccupationActor
BirthdayAugust 31, 1930 (93)
SignVirgo
BirthplaceCoventry, England, United Kingdom

Selected Filmography

Not available.