Ben Cross, star of stage and screen, has died at the age of 72.
The actor, best known for his role in Oscar-winning drama Chariots of Fire, died in Vienna from an unspecified illness according to his daughter who confirmed the news on Facebook.
“I am very broken to share with you that my dear father passed away a few hours ago,” she wrote. “He had been ill for a while, but there was a rapid decline last week.”
After graduating from Rada (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts), Cross made the switch from stage to screen in 1977’s A Bridge Too Far alongside Sean Connery and Michael Caine, in a role he later described as a “glorious extra”. In the same year he also became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company before gaining fame when he played Billy Flynn in Chicago.
This then led to Harold Abrahams starring in Chariots of Fire, the story of British athletes at the 1924 Olympics, a film he did not think of “going above the English shores”. It became a hit in the US and went on to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
“A film like this is professionally life-changing,” he said in 2012. “Suddenly you get offered a lot of work, which is wonderful. But since then I have done 80 or 90 projects, none of which have been as successful in any way. ”
In the years that followed, he starred alongside Richard Gere in First Knight, played Sarek in the 2009 Star Trek reboot, and played Prince Charles in William & Kate: The Movie. He also released a number of singles, including Name It, You Got It.
Cross also has a number of projects yet to be released, including Netflix romance Last Letter to Your Lover with Shailene Woodley and Felicity Jones and supernatural horror The Devil’s Light with Virginia Madsen.
He is survived by wife, Deyana Boneva Cross, and two children, Theo and Lauren.
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