Sad news coming in from Digital Spy; British actor Michael Gough has passed away at the age of 94. Gough, Kuala Lumpur born but the son of British parents, appeared in over 150 film and television shows in a career that lasted 7 decades. Easily his most famous role was as Bruce Wayne's ever faithful butler Alfred in all four Tim Burton/Joel Schmaucher Batman films, a role that gave his career a latter day second wind. Perhaps the only consistent element of four wildly different films, Gough was the anchor of the franchise, the homely, safe and comforting character that was always present and never changed... precisely the characteristics you would want Alfred to be if you were Bruce Wayne. Although he was never given the meaty chunks of dialogue that Michael Caine would enjoy in the later Chris Nolan movies, Gough made a memorable impression from very few words and for having appeared as the character for almost ten years, he is still the image of Alfred many of us get in our heads when we read Batman comics. Gough had great chemistry with Michael Keaton and George Clooney, and in the 1997 Batman & Robin movie was finally given a sub-plot himself, where he was suffering from failing health and was contemplating his own mortality and forcing Clooney's Bruce Wayne to come to terms with perhaps losing a second father figure. The scenes shared between Clooney and Gough are easily the best parts of that particular movie and the only moments that work in that whole film where genuine emotion is expressed. His collaboration with Tim Burton didn't stop with just the Batman movies though; he had a role in Sleepy Hollow (a love letter to his past persona's) and provided a voice in the stop motion picture Corpse Bride, and came out of retirement to do the same in Alice in Wonderland. Tim Burton cast Gough as Alfred and in Sleepy Hollow, because he remembered the face he grew up with from watching the early Hammer Horror movies where Gough was a regular, most memorably appearing in the 1958 version of Dracula, and as Lord Ambrose D'arcy in 1962's The Phantom Of The Opera. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMOCNfT-8Jw His work in the Hammer Horror movies afforded Gough cult status among a legion of British horror fans... Gough also appeared in a memorable Doctor Who episode as The Celestial Toymaker.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtcL0vi-DtI Though despite his work before and after, it'll be his turn for a generation of Batman fans as the trusted Alfred Pennyworth for which he will be most remembered.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCrSzNA-uAU RIP Alfred (article co-written by Matt Holmes)
Sad news coming in from Digital Spy; British actor Michael Gough has passed away at the age of 94. Gough, Kuala Lumpur born but the son of British parents, appeared in over 150 film and television shows in a career that lasted 7 decades. Easily his most famous role was as Bruce Wayne's ever faithful butler Alfred in all four Tim Burton/Joel Schmaucher Batman films, a role that gave his career a latter day second wind. Perhaps the only consistent element of four wildly different films, Gough was the anchor of the franchise, the homely, safe and comforting character that was always present and never changed... precisely the characteristics you would want Alfred to be if you were Bruce Wayne. Although he was never given the meaty chunks of dialogue that Michael Caine would enjoy in the later Chris Nolan movies, Gough made a memorable impression from very few words and for having appeared as the character for almost ten years, he is still the image of Alfred many of us get in our heads when we read Batman comics. 
Gough had great chemistry with Michael Keaton and George Clooney, and in the 1997 Batman & Robin movie was finally given a sub-plot himself, where he was suffering from failing health and was contemplating his own mortality and forcing Clooney's Bruce Wayne to come to terms with perhaps losing a second father figure. The scenes shared between Clooney and Gough are easily the best parts of that particular movie and the only moments that work in that whole film where genuine emotion is expressed. His collaboration with Tim Burton didn't stop with just the Batman movies though; he had a role in Sleepy Hollow (a love letter to his past persona's) and provided a voice in the stop motion picture Corpse Bride, and came out of retirement to do the same in Alice in Wonderland.
Gough also appeared in a memorable Doctor Who episode as The Celestial Toymaker.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtcL0vi-DtI Though despite his work before and after, it'll be his turn for a generation of Batman fans as the trusted Alfred Pennyworth for which he will be most remembered.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCrSzNA-uAU RIP Alfred (article co-written by Matt Holmes)