{{Short description|English playwright and actor (1938–2023)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2015}} {{Use British English|date=October 2015}} {{Infobox person | name = Tom Kempinski | image = | image_size = | caption = | nationality = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1938|3|24|df=yes}} | birth_place = Hendon, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|2023|8|2|1938|3|24|df=yes}} | death_place = | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Margaret Nolan|1967|1972|end=divorced}} * Frances de la Tour (divorced) }} }}
'''Thomas Michael John Kempinski''' (24 March 1938 – 2 August 2023) was an English playwright and actor<ref>{{cite web|url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba3700118|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120715073048/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2ba3700118|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-07-15|title=Tom Kempinski|work=BFI}}</ref> best known for his 1980 play ''Duet for One'', which was a major success in London and New York City, and much revived since. Kempinski also wrote the screenplay for the film version of ''Duet for One''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b70f43729|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120713165938/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2b70f43729|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-07-13|title=Duet for One|work=BFI}}</ref> In addition, he made minor appearances on numerous British television shows including ''Dixon of Dock Green'' and ''Z-Cars''.
==Early life and education== Kempinski's parents, Gerhard and Melanie Kempinski, were Jewish restaurateurs and hoteliers <ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/obituaries/article/tom-kempinski-obituary-nlqpst0zn |title=Tom Kempinski obituary |publisher=The Times}}</ref> who ran the Kempinski hotel in Berlin. They emigrated to London in 1936 as refugees before the Second World War.<ref name="Guardian" /> Kempinski was born in Hendon in 1938 but was evacuated to stay with his paternal grandparents in New York City at the age of 2 to avoid a potential Nazi invasion of England. On return to London, he was educated at Abingdon School from 1951 to 1956.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.abingdon.org.uk/uploads/school/files/abingdonian/1957_April_V011_N002.pdf#page=13 |title=Valete et Salvete |publisher=The Abingdonian}}</ref><ref name=OAnotes>{{Cite web |url=https://www.abingdon.org.uk/uploads/school/files/abingdonian/1968_January_V014_N004.pdf#page=56 |title=OA Notes |publisher=The Abingdonian}}</ref><ref name="Guardian"/> In 1957, he gained a major scholarship in Modern Languages to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, but suffered a breakdown and left after only ten weeks, albeit having time to join Footlights in the meantime.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.abingdon.org.uk/uploads/school/files/abingdonian/1957_January_V011_N001.pdf#page=19 |title=School Notes |publisher=The Abingdonian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/tom-kempinski-you-fear-you-will-go-berserk-and-murder-everyone-g2n6sx6w2|title = Tom Kempinski: 'You fear you will go berserk and murder everyone'|last1 = Maxwell|first1 = Dominic}}</ref><ref name="Guardian" /> After Cambridge, he had a brief spell in the Maudsley Hospital in South London.<ref name="Guardian" />
==Acting career== Kempinski then took up a place at RADA before moving into acting. His first rôle was in The Damned before moving into stage acting with Lionel Bart's Blitz!.<ref name="Guardian" />
Other stage and film rôles followed, notably in the anti-war play Dingo by Charles Wood and Gumshoe by Stephen Frears.<ref name="Guardian" />
In May 1968, Kempinski joined the student revolutionaries who occupied Paris's Odéon Theatre as part of "les événements".<ref name="Guardian" />
==Personal life and death== Some sources state that Kempinski was married to the actress Frances de la Tour, who starred in the original London production for ''Duet for One'',<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.englishtheatre.at/deutsch/ueber-uns/archiv/saison-200809/duet-for-one/author.html|title=Duet For One|publisher=Vienna's English Theatre}}</ref> whereas his obituary in ''The Guardian'' describes de la Tour as his partner.<ref name="Guardian"/> He was married to the actress Margaret Nolan from 1967 to 1972<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/exorcising-the-demons-within-1305602.html|title=Exorcising the demons within|work=The Independent|date=23 October 2011}}</ref> and to solicitor Sarah Tingay from 1991.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/article/tom-kempinski-you-fear-you-will-go-berserk-and-murder-everyone-g2n6sx6w2|title = Tom Kempinski: 'You fear you will go berserk and murder everyone'|last1 = Maxwell|first1 = Dominic}}</ref>
Tom Kempinski died on 2 August 2023, at the age of 85.<ref name="Guardian">{{cite news |last1=Coveney |first1=Michael |title=Tom Kempinski obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2023/aug/21/tom-kempinski-obituary |access-date=21 August 2023 |work=The Guardian |date=21 August 2023}}</ref>
==Selected filmography (actor)== * ''These Are the Damned'' (1962) as Ted * ''Do Be Careful Boys'' (1964) as (voice) * ''Othello'' (1965) as Sailor / senators-soldiers-Cypriots * ''Stranger in the House'' (1967) as shop assistant (uncredited) * ''The Whisperers'' (1967) as 2nd young man * ''Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter'' (1968) as Hobart * ''The Committee'' (1968) as victim * ''Moon Zero Two'' (1969) as 2nd Officer * ''Taste of Excitement'' (1969) as French Police Officer * ''Praise Marx and Pass the Ammunition'' (1970) as designer * ''The Reckoning'' (1970) as Brunzy * ''Doctor in Trouble'' (1970) as Stedman Green * ''The McKenzie Break'' (1970) as Lt. Schmidt * ''Gumshoe'' (1971) as psychiatrist * ''Adult Fun'' (1972) as plainclothes policeman
==See also== * List of Old Abingdonians
==References== <references/>
==External links== *{{imdb name|0447461}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kempinski, Tom}} Category:1938 births Category:2023 deaths Category:English dramatists and playwrights Category:English male dramatists and playwrights Category:People educated at Abingdon School Category:Workers Revolutionary Party (UK) members Category:Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Category:Actors from the London Borough of Barnet Category:People from Hendon