Ben Cross

PHOTO GALLERY
Date of Birth : Dec 16th 1947

Cross’s first big screen film appearance came in 1976 when he went on location to Deventer, Netherlands, to play Trooper Binns in Joseph E. Levine’s World War II epic A Bridge Too Far which starred a very famous international cast, including Dirk Bogarde, Sir Sean Connery, Sir Michael Caine and James Caan.

In 1977, Cross became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed in the premier of Privates on Parade as “Kevin Cartwright” and played Rover in a revival of a Restoration play titled Wild Oats.

Cross’s path to international stardom began in 1978 with his performance in the play Chicago in which he played Billy Flynn, the slick lawyer of murderess Roxie Hart. During his performance in this play he was recognized and recommended for a leading role in the multiple Oscar-winning Chariots of Fire. The major success of Chariots of Fire opened the doors to the international film market. Cross followed up Chariots of Fire with performances in the BBC series The Citadel in which he played a Scottish physician struggling with the politics of the British medical system during the 1920s and as Ash Pelham-Martyn, a British cavalry officer torn between two cultures in the ITV miniseries The Far Pavilions.

During the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, Cross appeared in a commercial for American Express (“Don’t leave home without it”) with the 87-year-old Jackson Scholz, a sprinter for the 1924 American Olympic team whose character was featured in the film Chariots of Fire. When Cross says something about beating Scholz, the latter remarks, “You never beat me!” with mock indignation. Proving he is “still pretty fast”, Scholz beats Cross to the draw in picking up the tab with his credit card.