The actor starred in a string of successful films in the 1980s, but declined offers to move to Tinseltown as he was put off by the hectic lifestyle.
And he feared the only movie parts available to him in Los Angeles would be stereotypical English roles.
He says, “I’m not sure that failure’s quite the right word. What happened was that, all these films that I made, like Time Bandits, and Brazil and A Private function, A Fish Called Wanda, they all did very well in America, but they were all made here (Britain). So I was being asked, you know, your films have done well, come over to Hollywood, we’ll write you a part here.
“Now, the only parts that some British actors at my age were getting in Hollywood were butlers, things like that… they all end up as butlers in some Hollywood mansion. And I realised that as insidiously lovely though the whole Hollywood lifestyle might be… you know balls, and massage parlours, and off to Las Vegas every weekend and all that, (it) wasn’t really what I wanted. I quite like being at home.”
