This excellent biography of one of Britain's finest actors, who died four years ago, pulls no punches about his private life. It lifts the veil from a well-kept secret which always bothered him.

Concealment was necessary because if the public had known that the late Sir Alan Bates was always a vigorously active closet homosexual, despite much-publicised relationships with women, his image and career would have suffered.

Spoto believes it was fear of exposure that prevented him from pushing himself to the heights of stardom, which were well within his grasp, Too much publicity and scrutiny by the press and public would have been dangerous.

Bates was born in the Midlands in 1934 and looked like a farmer from that part of the world, although he did not speak like one.

He struck fame early, when he acted in the original production of John Osborne's ground-breaking play Look Back in Anger in 1956.

In later years he acted in many memorable films, such as Zorba The Greek, The Entertainer and Women In Love (in which he and Oliver Reed memorably wrestled in the nude) but his first love was the stage.

He particularly favoured the work of modern playwrights such as Simon Gray, Harold Pinter and John Osborne and often portrayed complex, tortured men.

Bates's former gay lovers have revealed that despite his kindness and charm, he possessed a ruthless streak. Some were ditched quite brutally.

Always fearful that his homosexuality would become public knowledge, Bates was essentially a loner who resisted long-term personal commitment, yet he needed people around him - on his terms.

In 1970, he married a beautiful but psychologically disturbed young woman and they had twin sons. She made his life hell and eventually he moved out, leaving the children with her. Her neglect of them was disgraceful and in 1992 she died of a wasting disease.

Bates was belatedly knighted in 2003, the year in which he died of cancer at the age of 69.

A likeable man, with many friends, he was greatly mourned in the theatrical world.

  • Anthony Looch