We value Denis Lawson for the briskness he brings to an ensemble. In Local Hero, he is funny without asking the rest of the cast to stand aside, and the film is better for it.
Fi1m perspective
In Local Hero (1983), Denis Lawson's Gordon Urquhart seems to have more to get through than the people around him. His briskness gives Bill Forsyth's gentle comedy a useful push, and it is the quality we most value in Lawson: he can be funny without making a performance of being peculiar. Gordon is a hotelier and accountant, and Lawson makes that practical double duty sit comfortably amid the coastal oddness. We laughed at the contrast between his businesslike pace and the dreamier company he keeps.
The Wedge Antilles association runs from Star Wars (1977) through the original trilogy to a return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). Yet the work around it is less easily grouped: West End musicals, television comedy, and the lead role of John Jarndyce in Bleak House (2005). Mr Cinders (1983) belongs to the same year as Local Hero, so the musical theatre work was no later change of direction. Treating him chiefly as a familiar pilot gives a poor account of what he does.
In Forsyth's ensemble, Lawson has neither to steady the whole film nor supply all its eccentricity. Peter Riegert's Mac MacIntyre provides the steadiness, while Burt Lancaster lets Felix Happer be comfortably silly. Lawson supplies a quicker tempo, and the three approaches give the same situation different comic possibilities. We can enjoy Gordon without feeling that the other actors are merely waiting for him to finish; they have room to make their own responses count.
Local Hero also shows how much this sort of performance depends on the film around it. Forsyth's fondness for eccentricity sometimes softens the questions raised by the coastal property deal, and Gordon's practicality cannot entirely counter that tendency. The gentle pace is worth accepting for the actors' company, though we would have liked the business itself to be questioned more firmly. Start here for Lawson, then try Bleak House for the larger role.
Biography
Denis Stamper Lawson (born 27 September 1947) is a Scottish actor and director. He trained at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and began his career on stage in London's West End.
Lawson is known for playing Wedge Antilles in the original Star Wars trilogy (1977–1983) and reprising the role in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019). He played Gordon Urquhart in the film Local Hero (1983) and John Jarndyce in the BBC miniseries Bleak House (2005), for which he received BAFTA and Primetime Emmy Award nominations. His other television work includes Holby City (2002–2004, 2019) and New Tricks (2012–2015). On stage he is a three-time Laurence Olivier Award nominee for Best Actor in a Musical, winning in 1983 for Mr Cinders.
He has also directed stage productions, including Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1998–99) at the Hampstead Theatre, which starred his nephew Ewan McGregor.
