Edward Cedric Hardwicke was an English actor, who had a distinguished career on the stage, as well as being known for his portrayal of Dr. Watson in the Granada TV series Sherlock Holmes.
Hardwicke played at the Bristol Old Vic, the Oxford Playhouse and the Nottingham Playhouse before in 1964 joining Laurence Olivier’s National Theatre. He performed regularly there for seven years. He appeared with Olivier in William Shakespeare’s Othello and Ibsen’s The Master Builder. He also appeared in Peter Shaffer’s The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Charley's Aunt, Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, Congreve's The Way of the World, Georges Feydeau’s A Flea In Her Ear, The Crucible, Luigi Pirandello's The Rules Of The Game, Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Idiot and George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession. He returned to the National in 1977 for a production of Feydeau's The Lady from Maxim's. In 1973 he played Dr Astrov in Anton Chekhov's Uncle Vanya opposite Peter O'Toole at the Bristol Old Vic, and had an uncredited role as Charles Calthrop in the film The Day of the Jackal. In 1975 he appeared in Frederick Lonsdale's On Approval at the Haymarket Theatre, and in 1976 he played Sir Robert Chiltern in Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, a production with which he toured Canada. In 1993 he played the role of C. S Lewis's brother Warnie opposite Anthony Hopkins in Shadowlands, directed by Richard Attenborough. In 1995 he appeared in Ian McKellen's updated film of Richard III. His father, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, had appeared in the Laurence Olivier 1955 film version. In 2001 he played Arthur Winslow in The Winslow Boy at the Chichester Festival Theatre, a role played by his father in the 1948 film.
TV and ''Sherlock Holmes''
Hardwicke had a small role in "The Greek Interpreter" episode of the 1968 series Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes featuring Peter Cushing as Sherlock Holmes. Hardwicke played Judas Iscariot in the Dennis Potter TV play Son of Man. He became familiar to television audiences in the 1970s drama seriesColditz, in which he played Pat Grant, a character based on the real-life war hero Pat Reid. He then played Arthur in the sitcom My Old Man. In 1978 he appeared as Bellcourt in the last filmed episode of The Sweeney, "Hearts and Minds". David Burke suggested Hardwicke as his successor in the role of Doctor Watson in the Granada Television adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes stories in The Return of Sherlock Holmes series, alongside Jeremy Brett. Hardwicke played the role for eight years from 1986 to 1994, his first episode being "The Empty House" and his last "The Cardboard Box". He portrayed a very calm and attentive Watson, somewhat intolerant of Holmes's more outlandish moods, and became permanently associated with it, also playing it on the West End stage with Brett in The Secret of Sherlock Holmes in 1989. That same year, he also directed Going On by Charles Dennis at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. His other television appearances were numerous, and included Holocaust, Oppenheimer, Lovejoy, Dangerfield, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, David Copperfield, Agatha Christie's Poirot, Fanny Hill, Holby City, Shameless as a World War II veteran, and Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em.
Hardwicke also provided narration for several films. He voiced Major Swift in the Xbox 360 game Fable III.
Personal life
Hardwicke had two daughters, Kate and Emma, by his first marriage to Anne Iddon, which ended in divorce. He was married to Prim Cotton from 1995 until his death. Hardwicke lived in Chichester. On 16 May 2011 he died of cancer at a hospice in the city, with his remains handled at the Chichester Crematorium.
