British actor Joss Ackland is best known for her roles in White Mischief and Lethal Weapon 2. November 19, morning, “surrounded by his family,” the veteran actor took his final breath.
The statement provided to the PA news agency stated that the screen and stage actor, whose career extended over seven decades, passed away peacefully at home on Sunday, surrounded by family and friends.
During his “extensive and varied” stage career, he appeared in hundreds of films and television productions. In 2001, he was awarded the CBE for services to drama.
The family statement read:
“Joss Ackland imbued his roles with an exceptional sense of gravity and intensity, which was attributed to his distinctive voice and commanding presence.”
“He will be remembered as one of the most gifted and cherished actors in British history.”
Additionally, Joss Ackland was a “beloved father” and spent 51 years of his life with Rosemary, who passed away in 2002 from motor neuron disease.
Born in 1928 in the Ladbroke Grove neighborhood of London, Ackland spent his childhood with his sibling Paddy and sister Barbara in Kilburn, north London.
In the early 1960s, Joss Ackland and his spouse’s residence was destroyed by fire; Rosemary, who was pregnant at the time, suffered a fractured vertebra.
She managed to regain her mobility despite the doctors’ predictions. Still, Ackland’s family was further beset by the death of his son Paul from an opioid overdose, an event that Ackland himself declared he would never forget.
After performing for numerous regional theatre companies, the actor joined the Old Vic in London, where she appeared alongside such theatrical luminaries as Dame Judi Dench and Dame Maggie Smith.
His non-Old Vic stage appearances included Juan Peron in Evita by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Hermione Gingold opposite him in the London production of A Little Night Music.
Joss Ackland delivered a letter for Letters Live at Freemasons’ Hall in 2015, written to Rosemary, his future wife at the time of composition.
Throughout his career, Joss Ackland appeared in over a hundred films and television series, including White Mischief, Lethal Weapon 2, and The Hunt for Red October.
One of his television appearances was in The Avengers, a 1960s espionage series centered around the shrewd British agent John Steed.
Additionally, he appeared in a 1966 Hammer Horror film as a bishop in Rasputin: The Mad Monk.
Joss Ackland continued to act throughout the 2000s, and in 2002 he co-starred with American actor Harrison Ford as Marshal Zelentsov in the suspense film K-19: The Widowmaker.
His recent filmography includes appearances in the 2013 film Prisoners Of The Sun, the 2009 television miniseries Pinocchio, and the 2014 film Fall Of An Empire: The Story Of Katherine Of Alexandria, which was also titled Decline Of An Empire.
Seven descendants and thirty great-grandchildren comprised Ackland’s lineage.
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