Ronald Alfred Pickup was a highly respected and classically trained character actor who specialized in portraying prominent historical authority figures and crusty academics. Born in Chester, England, to English and French language lecturer Eric Pickup and his wife Daisy (née Williams),Ronald received his education at Leeds University and then studied at RADA on a scholarship.
He made his theatrical debut in 1964 at the Phoenix Theatre in Leicester and spent two years at the Royal Court Theatre before joining the ensemble of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company at the Old Vic in London for seven years, from 1966 to 1973. Ronald's extensive list of theatrical credits included title roles in Oedipus and Macbeth, as well as highly acclaimed performances in Long Day's Journey into Night and Waiting for Godot.
Ronald's first screen appearance was in a 1964 episode of Doctor Who, for which he was paid £30. It took another decade before he eventually made his first TV breakthrough as Lord Randolph Churchill in the miniseries Jennie: Lady Randolph Churchill, co-starring alongside the excellent American actress Lee Remick.
His subsequent roles encompassed a truly impressive gallery of historical personae, including William Pitt, the Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer, Giuseppe Verdi, Friedrich Nietzsche, George Orwell, and Albert Einstein. For the big screen, he essayed Igor Stravinsky in Nijinsky and Neville Chamberlain in the Churchill biopic Darkest Hour.
In between, he made frequent guest appearances in popular dramatic fare, such as Silent Witness, Dalziel and Pascoe, Foyle's War, Hustle, and Midsomer Murders. Ronald reached perhaps the apex of his career on screen by way of his likeable performance in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel as the ageing womanizer Norman Cousins and was also latterly praised for his role as the Archbishop of Canterbury in The Crown.
He lent his distinctive voice to BBC radio recordings and to the talking lion Aslan of Narnia in Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair. The urbane and gentlemanly Ronald Pickup received an honorary Doctor of Letters award from the University of Chester in 2011. He passed away at the age of 80 on February 24, 2021, after a long illness.
