Robert Addie

Robert Alastair Addie (10 February 1960 – 20 November 2003) was an English film and theatre actor, who came to prominence playing the role of Sir Guy of Gisburne in the 1980s British television drama series Robin of Sherwood.

Addie was born in Stroud, Gloucestershire, the son of a stable owner, and was educated at Marlborough College. After initially being employed as a trainee estate agent on a ranch in Argentina, he returned to England and joined the National Youth Theatre in London in 1976 at the age of 16. Subsequently, he trained in acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, which he left after a year after successfully auditioning for the role of Mordred in the 1981 film Excalibur.

Addie was a professional polo player; his skills as a horseman and also with sword and bow led to his frequently appearing in historical dramas set in the medieval era.

At the beginning of his career in the early 1980s he appeared on British television in a number of advertisements for products ranging from Polycell plastering repair wall filler to Mr Kipling cakes. In the early 1980s he also appeared in a variety of theatrical productions, including Journey's End in 1981 at the Churchill Theatre in Bromley, and Conduct Unbecoming in 1982 at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.

His most prominent film role was Prince Mordred in John Boorman's Excalibur (1981). Other films included Another Country (1984), as Delahay.

On television, Addie starred as Stalky in a 1982 BBC television mini-series of Rudyard Kipling's Stalky & Co.. In 1987, he played Sir Charles Kirkgordon in the CBS mini-series I'll Take Manhattan and Lord Peter Gillingham in A Hazard of Hearts. His role as Sir Guy of Gisburne in the 1984–1986 English television series Robin of Sherwood brought his career national exposure.

In 1989, he abandoned acting and spent several years living in Spain and the United States. Returning to his career in 1995, he initially performed in touring fringe theatre original productions with the Chichester-based Exiled Theatre Company. In 1995 he appeared with the company in Shades in Time - Martyrs, involving a promenading performance within Gloucester Cathedral, and as the character of a mouse in the play Shades in Time - The Docks set at Gloucester Docks as a part of the 1995 Gloucester Festival. In late 1995, he performed with the company in Cheltenham in a theatrical monologue he wrote about a Mohammedan jihadist suicide bomber entitled Acts of Revenge, and in 1996 he appeared in the new plays by the company: Edmund, Son of Gloucester (a prequel to Shakespeare's King Lear) and Into the Mist – a play set in early medieval Scotland with Addie playing St Columba.

After this Addie resumed a film and television career, also acting in a number of television commercials in 1998 for designer kitchens, whisky, and habit-breaking products for cigarettes.

Addie was married and divorced three times. He had three children; Alex, Alastair, and Caitlin.

Addie died, aged 43, from the effects of lung cancer at Cheltenham General Hospital on 20 November 2003 just less than three weeks after being diagnosed with the disease. On the tenth anniversary of his death, fans planted a cherry tree bearing a commemorative plaque in his memory in the Jack Gardner Memorial Garden in Cirencester.

• Journey's End (1981)
• Conduct Unbecoming (1982)
• Shades in Time (1995)
• The Tell-Tale Heart (1995)
• Acts of Revenge (Co-written by Robert Addie) (1995)
• Edmund Son of Gloucester (1996)
• Into the Mist (1996)