OBITUARY
Joss Ackland obituary
Shakespearean actor with a mellifluous voice who channelled personal tragedy into performances of naturalism, depth and subtlety
Joss Ackland was nearly 60 when he landed his first big film role
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As a child hunting for sixpences with his mother in the crevices of the sofa to fund an excursion to the cinema, Joss Ackland longed to star in the movies.
Yet the honey-voiced actor was nearly 60 — and a seasoned Shakespearean actor — when he landed his first big film role as a mafia godfather in The Sicilian (1987). Ackland went to Sicily for six weeks before filming started, to live with a grizzled old mafioso in a village. He knew that he had “somehow melded in” three weeks later “when I got the third kiss ... the good one. After being with this old boy all I had to do was say my lines.”
His preparation exemplified a rigorous but down-to-earth approach to