Hysterical

Urquhart Media Honors Life & Times of Francis Urquhart

Chicago, Illinois… Urquhart Media, LLC today honors the life and times of our company’s namesake, Francis Urquhart, with the untimely passing of accomplished actor Sir Ian Richardson on Friday. In memory of Sir Ian Richardson/Francis Urquhart, a black armband has been affixed to the Urquhart Media logo on our company website, www.urqmedia.com.

In the history of the world’s politics, there was no finer practitioner of the art of politics than Francis Urquhart, the late Prime Minister of Britain.

What’s that, you say? There never has been a Prime Minister of Britain named Urquhart — Francis or otherwise? You’re quite right, of course. We’re referring to the fictional lead character of House of Cards, a BBC-produced political satire about the post-Thatcher succession struggle inside Britain’s Conservative Party.

Do we endorse the diabolical schemes and Hobbesian sensibility of Francis Urquhart? In honor of his passing, we must say, “You might think that. We couldn’t possibly comment.”
Ian Richardson: 1934 – 2007

British actor gained fame in `House of Cards’
Evil politician in satirical television series became signature role during long career on stage and screen

Associated Press

LONDON — Ian Richardson, who brought Shakespearean depth to his portrayal of a thoroughly immoral politician in the hugely popular satirical television drama “House of Cards,” died Friday at age 72, his agent said.

In addition to his many stage, screen and TV roles, Mr. Richardson also appeared in one of the mustard commercials as the man in the Rolls-Royce who asked, “Pardon me, would you have any Grey Poupon?”

He died in his sleep at his London home, said the agent, Jean Diamond.

Mr. Richardson played the silkily evil Francis Urquhart in three mini-series, “House of Cards” in 1990, “To Play the King” in 1993 and “The Final Cut” in 1995.

Urquhart’s smooth riposte to any slur against another character–“You may think that; I couldn’t possibly comment”–was picked up by British politicians and heard again and again in the House of Commons.

His other television roles included Bill Haydon in John Le Carre’s “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”; Sir Godber Evans in “Porterhouse Blue” and Sherlock Holmes in “The Hound of the Baskervilles.”

In 2000, he starred in “Murder Rooms: The Dark Beginnings of Sherlock Holmes,” playing Dr. Joseph Bell, the mentor of Arthur Conan Doyle, in a mini-series that was broadcast in the United States on PBS’ “Mystery.”

He also portrayed the British spy Anthony Blunt in the British Broadcasting Corp. television play “Blunt.”

On Broadway, he played Jean-Paul Marat in “Marat/Sade” in 1965, reprising the role on film the following year, and Henry Higgins in a 1976 revival of “My Fair Lady,” for which he was nominated for a Tony Award as best actor in a musical.

Other movie credits included “Brazil” in 1985, “The Fourth Protocol” in 1987 and “102 Dalmatians” in 2000.

But it was his “House of Cards” role that turned him “from a jobbing actor that the cognoscenti were aware of into a star that the country’s entire viewing population knew,” Richardson said in an interview last year.

“House of Cards” was brilliantly, if accidentally, timed. It appeared in Britain in the same year that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was brought down by feuding in her Conservative Party.

The mini-series was shown in the United States as part of PBS’ “Masterpiece Theatre.”

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I like to poke fun at Proft, but this is really funny.