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Anthony Higgins

Born in Northampton, England, on 9 May 1947, Anthony Higgins is a British actor whose career has moved comfortably between theatre, film and television. He began acting in school and Cosmopolitan Club productions, taking lead roles in Treasure Island, Sweeney Todd and The Beggar’s Uproar before studying at the school of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre Company. He became a professional stage actor in 1967 and played Romeo at Birmingham Repertory, later working in Coventry, at the Chichester Festival, and with the Royal Shakespeare Company and National Theatre. His early screen work arrived under the name Anthony Corlan, a credit he used until 1975 because of another actor with a similar name. Television appearances in Journey to the Unknown and Strange Report were followed by films including John Huston’s A Walk with Love and Death, Something for Everyone, Taste the Blood of Dracula and Vampire Circus. That mix of literary drama, period filmmaking and horror established the range that would continue through his career. Higgins played Boris in the BBC adaptation The Roads to Freedom and later took the lead in The Eagle of the Ninth. His stage work remained important: Time Out named him Best Actor of 1979 for his work with the Royal Shakespeare Company that year. In the 1980s, Higgins appeared as Major Gobler in Steven Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, played Stephan opposite Isabelle Adjani in Quartet, and took the leading role in Peter Greenaway’s The Draughtsman’s Contract. He also worked with Nagisa Oshima in Max mon amour and appeared opposite Sting in The Bride, alongside television roles in Lace, Reilly, Ace of Spies and Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story. One of the neatest turns in Higgins’s screen career is his connection to both sides of the Sherlock Holmes rivalry. He played Rathe, the future Moriarty, in Young Sherlock Holmes in 1985, then returned as Holmes himself in Sherlock Holmes Returns in 1993. Later appearances included Chromophobia, Heroes and Villains: Napoleon, Lewis, Law & Order: UK and Agatha Christie’s Marple.