Is your heart hiding from your fire?

[sovay]

I had just been thinking about Jack Shepherd because he was one of the founding members of the Actors' Company which had sparked off in 1972 with Ian McKellen and Edward Petherbridge, whose memoir I was re-reading last night. He'd left the company by the time of their adaptation of R. D. Laing's Knots (1970) and thus does not appear in the 1975 film which seems to have been their only moving picture record, leaving me once again with strictly photographic evidence of this sort of reverse supergroup experiment in democratic theater. (Shepherd at far right resembles a pre-Raphaelite pin-up in jeans, but I like to think if I had Caroline Blakiston's arm round my shoulders I wouldn't look that brooding about it.) Then again, I missed most of his film and famous television work, too: my reaction to his death is derived entirely from his astonishing Renfield in the BBC Count Dracula (1977), who holds more than a candle to the icons of Dwight Frye or Pablo Álvarez Rubio, a heartbreakingly weird and human performance of a character who may not be entirely sane in a world with vampires in it, which doesn't mean he's not to be trusted about them. I loved how much of his lucidity slides between his Victorian hysteria and his careful impersonation of a reformed lunatic which is not always and for good reason convincing. I loved his kiss of Judi Bowker's Mina, not his master's initiatory drink, but a damned soul's benison, the offering of his life. Not just because he became my default horror icon on this site, I thought about him more than any other character from that sometimes surprisingly faithful adaptation. His bare wrists, his shocked hair. His actor had such a knack in the role for the liminal, death seems on some level too definite to believe.

Comments

[gwynnega]

Oh, I hadn't heard! I first saw Count Dracula in my teens, and Shepherd's Renfield (and his recitation of Blake's "The Fly") made a profound impression on me. I've since seen a few of Shepherd's other roles, but as far as I'm concerned, Renfield really was the highest point of his career.

[sovay]

Oh, I hadn't heard!

I read the news from calliopes_pen and there went my evening. I really had just been telling spatch about the Actors' Company. I would definitely burn a time machine credit on their first season.

I first saw Count Dracula in my teens, and Shepherd's Renfield (and his recitation of Blake's "The Fly")

Yes! He would write a play involving Blake. I wonder if the poem was his contribution.

made a profound impression on me. I've since seen a few of Shepherd's other roles, but as far as I'm concerned, Renfield really was the highest point of his career.

It's very unfair, but very difficult for me to picture him as anyone else.

[gwynnega]

It makes me happy to know about his Blake play! ("The Fly" has always been my favorite Blake poem, largely because of him.)

[sovay]

It makes me happy to know about his Blake play!

I definitely want to read it!

("The Fly" has always been my favorite Blake poem, largely because of him.)

I love that.

His otherwise lovely obituary in the Guardian does not mention Renfield; I'm sure they have word counts, but come on.

[gwynnega]

Anyone who had seen his Renfield surely would have mentioned it!

[gwynnega]

"where he returned in 1973 as Dracula in a play of that title that he co-wrote"

Okay, that just blew my mind.

(I am overdue for a Count Dracula rewatch.)

[sovay]

Okay, that just blew my mind.

I can't find photographs! (I had also had no idea.)

(I am overdue for a Count Dracula rewatch.)

Trending hard same. Also if you haven't written any Renfield poems, you totally should.

[gwynnega]

Also if you haven't written any Renfield poems, you totally should.

I totally should. (I have only written about Dwight Frye's Renfield, which is not remotely the same thing!)

[sovay]

I totally should. (I have only written about Dwight Frye's Renfield, which is not remotely the same thing!)

It isn't! (Although I love that poem.) Please imagine me looking enabling.

[davidgillon]

It's so strange to see him in that photo with dark hair, I'd somehow assumed he'd sprung full-silvered into Wycliffe without any prior history.

[sovay]

It's so strange to see him in that photo with dark hair, I'd somehow assumed he'd sprung full-silvered into Wycliffe without any prior history.

He's starting to silver as Renfield. And young for it, still in his thirties. Obsessed with eternal life and time is already settling on him. It's one of the details of the character I love. I've never seen him as Wycliffe except in photos.