Tom Wilkinson, the maniacal lawyer, steel foreman-turned-stripper and actor who could turn parts big and small into mesmerizing turns, who won Oscars and accolades for his roles in movies like “Michael Clayton” and “The Full Monty,” died Saturday at age 75, according to a family statement.
A statement from his agent, sent on behalf of his family, said he died suddenly at home. It did not provide other details.
Mr. Wilkinson's range seemed to know no bounds.
He received Academy Award nominations for his work in “In the Bedroom” and “Michael Clayton” and entertained audiences in comedies such as “The Full Monty” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”
He appeared in blockbusters such as “Shakespeare in Love” and “Batman Begins” and took on history in “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” as Benjamin Franklin in “John Adams” and “Memory in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” “
He often lacked the name recognition or sheer star power of actors like George Clooney, Sissy Spacek and Ben Affleck. But his decades of work in television and film and on the stage have earned him the eye of audiences and the acclaim of critics.
“I see myself as a utility player, a do-it-all player,” he told The New York Times in 2002.
For many Britons, “The Full Monty” remains his most beloved performance as an unemployed steelworker in Sheffield, England. city.
Mr. Wilkinson stars as Gerald Cooper, who joins Cadre in part to escape the decorative gnomes raised by his wife on the lawn.
But his range goes beyond comedy, and he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Todd Field's “In the Bedroom.”
Ms. Opposite Spacek, Mr. Wilkinson played one half of a struggling Maine couple after their son's murder. Mr. Field, who is Mr. He said he was impressed by Wilkinson's everyman character.
“You don't normally think Robert Redford is going to be living next door,” said Mr. Field told The Times. “But you believe Tom Wilkinson can live next door. That's the difference.”
A few years later, Mr. Wilkinson returned to acclaim as a high-powered lawyer with a breakdown in Tony Gilroy's “Michael Clayton.” He was nominated for another Academy Award for his performance in that film.
By then, Mr. Wilkinson has been acting in theatre, television and film for three decades.
He was born in Yorkshire, England, and his parents moved to Canada when he was 4 years old in search of better work than farming. Their stay lasted only six years, during which time his father worked as an aluminum smelter. The family returned to Britain, where Mr. Wilkinson's parents ran a Cornwall pub until his father's death, and Mr. Wilkinson and his mother were taken to Yorkshire.
Information about his survivors was not immediately available.
Mr. Wilkinson's career took a sharp turn at age 16 at King James Grammar School in Knaresborough, where the headmasters “simply decided she wanted to do something with me.”
This, she said, was “being invited over to her house, teaching her how to eat, which knives and forks to reach for first.”
“We'll go to the theater together,” he said. “After wandering aimlessly through school, suddenly someone took an interest in me.”
But he wasn't drawn to acting until he reached Canterbury University in 1967, he said. After college, he attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he discovered that “working-class kids from the provinces” could open art galleries, run rock bands, be designers and actors.
“Everything that wasn't cool became cool,” he said. “I saw young, provincial bohemians and thought maybe that role was mine. I'd be in the arts. I could make a living in the arts. Why not?”
