Robert Powell

Intense but gentle-looking British leading actor with wide, deep-set, blue eyes and a pensive, sometimes mournful quality, prominent in international films and TV. After brief experience in repertory theater, Powell played bits in films, but fame came when he acted a leading role in the TV series "Doomwatch" (BBC, 1970-71), a semi-rip-off of "Mission: Impossible" about a high-profile and secretive group of watchdog scientists. Powell then returned to features to play prominent roles in films like the fantasy "The Asphyx" (1972). A break came when he played the title role in Ken Russell's comparatively straightforward and handsomely wrought biopic of the sensitive, tormented composer "Mahler" (1973).