Sir Alan Bates has died of cancer at age 67. One of my favorites. He was

the gamekeeper in that wonderful atmospheric movie of L.P. Hartley’s THE

GO-BETWEEN, and Gabriel Oak in FAR FROM THE MADDING CROWD. (“He was Gabriel

Oak down to his gaiters,” a Hardy-phile friend of mine observed at the

time.) A brilliant actor, and I think the only one so far to have

portrayed Harry Flashman on screen (ROYAL FLASH, 1975).