Roy Kinnear

It was the launching pad of a film career comprised mostly of comic relief and cameo roles. One of Kinnear's most popular film appearances was a two-minute bit specially written for him in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1967), wherein the actor played a trainer of Roman gladiators who conducted his classes in the manner of a golf instructor. Richard Lester, director of both Help! and Forum, cast Kinnear as long-suffering lackey Planchet in the star-studded 1974 filmization of The Three Musketeers, and its sequel (shot simultaneously) The Four Musketeers (1974). With virtually every cast member -- especially Raquel Welch -- clowning it up in the Musketeers films, Kinnear's routines for the first time seemed intrusive. After a decade of variable roles, Kinnear was cast as The Common Man in the 1987 Charlton Heston remake of A Man for All Seasons; it was a brilliant tour de force, with Kinnear displaying a full and versatile range from low comedy to subtle pathos. While recreating his Planchet role in Return of the Musketeers, filmed on location in Spain, Roy Kinnear fell from a horse during a comic chase scene, suffered a heart attack, and died at the age of 54; that film premiered in 1989. Kinnear had completed work on his penultimate feature -- doing one of the voices for the kiddie cartoon The Princess and the Goblin -- not long before his death. It wrapped production in 1992 and took its stateside bow in 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide