Actor: Ian Charleson

Ian Charleson played Eric Liddell in Chariots of Fire, the Scottish runner who refused to compete on a Sunday, and the performance carries the film’s argument about faith without any sanctimony.

Gandhi gave him a further role. He played Hamlet at the National Theatre in 1989 while dying of AIDS-related illness, in a performance widely described as extraordinary, and died eight weeks later. An annual award for classical acting is named for him.