Eric (Richard) Porter

Actor, born in London, UK. He made his first appearance in 1945 at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge, then worked in repertory in London and Birmingham, and joined John Gielgud's company at the Lyric Theatre (1952–3). Both a classical and modern actor, he appeared with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre, notably as Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1988), and as King Lear in Jonathan Miller's revival at the Old Vic (1989). He made several film and television appearances, notably as Soames Forsyte in the BBC television series, The Forsyte Saga.

Eric Porter (April 8, 1928 - May 15, 1995) was a distinguished English actor who appeared on stage as well as in cinema and television. In 1960 he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Porter's greatest success was as the tortured solicitor Soames Forsyte in the BBC dramatisation of John Galsworthy's The Forsyte Saga (1967).

Eric Porter was a leading member of Peter Hall's company at Stratford during the 1960s, where his roles included Ulysses, Macbeth, Leontes, Malvolio, Shylock, Lear, Bolingbroke and Henry IV, as well as Marlowe's Doctor Faustus.

He was a versatile actor who played memorable roles in television dramas such as Jewel in the Crown, Fagin in the 1985 BBC version of Oliver Twist and as Professor Moriarty opposite Jeremy Brett's Sherlock Holmes in Granada Television's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes stories The Red-Headed League and The Final Problem (both 1985).

Porter continued to act on stage, winning the London Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor in 1988 for his role in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.