David Bailie

David Bailie (born 4 December 1937)[1] is an English actor, known for his performances on stage, television and film.[2] In the 1960s and 1970s he worked for both the National Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he was an associate artist.[3] On TV he played "Dask" in the 1977 Doctor Who serial The Robots of Death, and also appeared in Blake's 7.[4][5] On film, he played the mute pirate Cotton in the Pirates of the Caribbean series.[6] Bailie is also a professional photographer, specialising in portrait photography. He has a studio in West Kensington, London.[7]

David Bailie
Born	(1937-12-04) 4 December 1937 Springs, South Africa
Occupation	Actor, photographer, videographer, computer programmer, furniture maker/designer
Years active	1961–present
Spouse(s)	Egidija Bailie ( m. 2002)
Website	http://davidbailie.co.uk/

Life and career

Bailie was born in Springs, South Africa, and went to boarding school in Swaziland, before emigrating to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) with his family in 1952. His first acting experience soon after school in 1955 was an amateur production of Doctor in the House, which persuaded him he wanted to be an actor.[8] After leaving school he worked in a bank and then for Central African Airlines. In 1958, he made his first trip from Rhodesia to Britain.

In 1960 he moved to Britain and landed his first small role in the film Flame in the Streets (1961) and then played one of the bell boys in Arthur Kopit's Oh Dad, Poor Dad, Mamma's Hung You in the Closet and I'm Feelin' So Sad (1961) with Stella Adler playing Madame Rospettle He then bluffed his way into weekly repertory in Barrow-in-Furness as juvenile lead – terrified the while that he would be exposed as totally inexperienced.

Recognising the need for training, he auditioned three times for a bursary to the RADA—each time being accepted only as a fee-paying student, which he couldn't afford. He finally sent for the last of his standby money (£200) he had left in Rhodesia and paid for the first term (1963). At the end of term he persuaded John Fernald to allow him free tuition for the next two years.[9]

Terry Hands was also a student at the same time, but had left a little earlier than Bailie and formed the Everyman Theatre with Peter James in Liverpool. On leaving RADA Bailie was invited to join the Everyman in 1964. Amongst other roles he played "Tolen" in The Knack..., "Becket" in Murder in the Cathedral, "Dion" in The Great God Brown, "MacDuff" in Macbeth and "Lucky" in Waiting for Godot.

After a year there, he came back to London and auditioned for and was accepted by Sir Laurence Olivier joining the National Theatre. He played minor roles and also understudied Olivier in Love for Love.

Terry Hands, who had by now joined the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) at Stratford-upon-Avon (and later became its artistic director), invited Bailie to join them as an associate artist (1965). There he portrayed "Florizel" opposite Judi Dench's "Perdita" in The Winter's Tale along with "Valentine" in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, "The Bastard" in King John, "Kozanka" in The Plebeians Rehearse the Uprising and "Leslie" in The Madness of Lady Bright.[10]

During the early 1970s he worked with Stomu Yamashta at his Red Buddha Theatre. He was cast as the lead in a show called Raindog, requiring him to do everything from singing and dancing, to performing Martial Arts and gymnastics – which he frankly admits been a demand too far and when Yamashta offered him a paltry sum for performing the opportunity was there to depart which he did. He was then cast by Michael E. Briant in 1976 to play the part of the villain "Dask" in the Doctor Who serial The Robots of Death.[8] He also played in a number of other series prominent at the time.[11]

For personal reasons Bailie then had a long recess in his acting career. Between 1980 and 1989 he ran a furniture-making business. In 1990 he closed that down and returned to acting, having in fact to virtually restart his career. It didn't help that at exactly this point he had to have a cancer removed from his lip, which required learning to speak again. Whilst awaiting work in the acting field he busied himself with CAD design, self-training and writing computer programs and also doing health and safety work in the building industry.

In the mid-1990s after playing alongside Brian Glover in The Canterbury Tales he made a comeback in the film business as "Skewer" in Cutthroat Island (1995), then played an English Judge in The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999), and also "The Engineer" in Gladiator (2000).[2]

Bailie's best-known work in film is the role of "Cotton", a mute pirate who has his tongue cut out, so he trained his parrot, also named Cotton, to speak on his behalf, though it cannot say more than stock phrases. Bailie first appears as Cotton in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) as one of the pirates Jack Sparrow chooses in Tortuga. He is one of the Black Pearl crewmembers to survive the Kraken attack in the sequel Dead Man's Chest (2006), and also played Cotton in the third instalment: At World's End (2007).[12]

Bailie also emerged as a radio actor. He played the mad scientist "Taren Capel", a re-incarnation of his earlier work from the 60s series Doctor Who.[13] He has recently been involved in two Big Finish Productions audio dramas playing the "Celestial Toymaker".[14]

Bailie also works as a professional photographer, portraiture and landscapes being his speciality.[7]

He has established a YouTube channel mdebailes to which he uploads readings and performance excerpts.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1961	Flame in the Streets		Uncredited
1972	Henry VIII and His Six Wives	Norris
1973	The Creeping Flesh	Young Doctor
1974	Son of Dracula	Chauffeur
1975	Legend of the Werewolf	Boulon
1977	Golden Rendezvous	Younger terrorist in car	Uncredited
1995	Cutthroat Island	Dawg's Pirate
1999	The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc	English Judge
2000	Gladiator	Engineer
2003	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl	Cotton
2005	Starfly	Commander / Doctor	Short
2006	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	Cotton
2007	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
2007	Eddie Proctor	Eddie Proctor	Short
2007	The Comebacks	Prisoner
2009	Shadows in the Wind	Mr. Behrman	Short
2011	Pirates of the Caribbean: Tales of the Code – Wedlocked	Cotton	Short
2011	Tribe	Wentzelow
2013	Traveller
2014	October 1	Ackerman
2014	Artificio Conceal	Vitruvius	Short
2015	The Timber	Sheriff Snow
2017	The Beyond	Professor Jakob Brukiehm
2018	The House That Jack Built	S.P.
2019	In the Trap	Father Andrew
2020	Darbar	Drug Overlord	Uncredited

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1975	BBC Play of the Month	Sergeant Davidson	Episode: "The Little Minister"
1977	Doctor Who	Dask	Episode: "The Robots of Death"
1978	Blake's 7	Chevner	Episode: "Project Avalon"
1979	The First Part of King Henry the Fourth, with the Life and Death of Henry Surnamed Hotspur	Second Carrier	TV movie
2001	Fire, Plague, War and Treason	Self	(documentary series examining the plague years in Great Britain)
2001	Attila	Shaman	2 episodes

References

1. "Bailie, David 1937–". World Cat. Retrieved 13 March 2015.
2. "David Bailie". BFI.
3. "David Bailie | Theatricalia". theatricalia.com.
4. "BBC - Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide - The Robots of Death - Details". www.bbc.co.uk.
5. "Project Avalon (1978)". BFI.
6. "Pirates of the Caribbean parrot attacks police officer". The Telegraph. United Kingdom. 11 September 2009.
7. "Photographer – Kensington – London – davidbailie -portraits & landscape". davidbailie.co.uk. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
8. "The Man Behind the Mask: Interview with David Bailie".
9. "David Bailie — RADA". www.rada.ac.uk.
10. "Search | RSC Performances | Shakespeare Birthplace Trust". collections.shakespeare.org.uk.
11. "David Bailie". www.aveleyman.com.
12. "David Bailie | Movies and Filmography". AllMovie.
13. "Kaldor City - Taren Capel - Audio Drama". www.reviewgraveyard.com.
14. "4.12. Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles: Solitaire - Doctor Who - The Companion Chronicles - Big Finish". www.bigfinish.com.

External links

• David Bailie on IMDb
• Bailie's website