The actor Charles Gray, who died on March 7th aged 71, never wanted to be loved, but he won plenty of applause for his portraits of silken arrogance, self-importance, oily malice and egotism. Among his film parts were the wily Blofeld, James Bond's antagonist in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and the chief apostle of evil in Terence Fisher's The Devil Rides Out (1967).
He endowed toffs, cads, crooks, and braggarts with hauteur and elegance. What gave them authenticity was his belief in them. The voice was commanding, though it rarely needed raising, and its tone belonged to high society.
He learned his powers of spoken speech as a young Shakespearian actor in Regent's Park, at Stratford-on-Avon and the Old Vic in the post-war heyday of Richard Burton, John Neville and Paul Rogers. The actor cut an imposing figure; and the voice and its inflections were under such control that together they served undetectably as Jack Hawkins's when that even better actor lost his voice from throat cancer.
His shamelessly affected persona, which could be arrestingly camp or plain overbearing, sometimes spilled over into his private life in Kensington. Not as private as some neighbours, he used to entertain friends into the small hours on his apartment balcony. When asked why he cut such a self-important dash, he would protest: "I'm not in the least aristocratic in real life, old boy. I much prefer a pint at the local."
Born in Bournemouth, he spent his early adult years in an estate agent's office. By his mid-20s he felt the call of the stage; and under his real name, Donald Gray, made his first professional appearance in As You Like It (1952). Changing his name to Charles for the next production, Cymbeline, he then moved to Stratford-on-Avon in walk-on parts and in 1954 joined the Old Vic.
By 1956 he was taking leads. One of his best was Achilles in Tyrone Guthrie's Edwardian revival of Troilus And Cressida. Other Old Vic credits included Macduff to Paul Rogers's Macbeth, Lodovico to Richard Burton's and John Neville's Othellos, Escalus to Neville's Romeo, and Bolingbroke to Neville's Richard II. If neither his Bolingbroke nor Macduff could stir the audience, that would remain part of Charles Gray's dramatic problem: however much people might admire his acting, he could never touch their feelings.
Later at the Old Vic he revelled in the role of the voluptuous glutton, Sir Epicure Mammon, in Tyrone Guthrie's modern-dress revival of Ben Jonson's The Alchemist; and in 1964 he won the Clarence Derwent Award for the year's best supporting actor as the host of a party given to taunt the hero of Anouilh's Poor Bitos.
Among small screen credits were Strickland in The Moon And Sixpence, rated as rivalling George Sanders in the film, the bland brother-in-law in Pinter's The Tea Party, the amorous TV personality in Fay Weldon's The Three Wives Of Felix Hull, an overbearing Randolph Churchill in Hugo Charteris's Asquith, the trouble-making judge in Blind Justice, the acerbic Sir Cathcart in Porterhouse Blue and a peer in The Upper Crust series.
Among film credits were the narrator in Jim Sharman's The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the satanic priest who duelled with Christopher Lee in The Devil Rides Out, the sinister butler in The Mirror Crack'd and Judge in Shock Treatment.
Charles Gray never married.
Charles Gray: born 1928; died March, 2000