James Wilby is most useful when good manners fail to make a man happy or decent. We value his sensitive leads and flawed supporting figures, though repeated period casting can make his work look narrower than it is.
Fi1m perspective
James Wilby often plays a man who has the social advantages and still cannot make himself comfortable. We rate him for that unhappiness, and for letting a well-placed man be flawed. Maurice (1987), in which he played Maurice Hall, brought him to wider attention as a lead. Tony Last, the unhappily married aristocrat in A Handful of Dust (1988), gives a clear sense of what makes his period work worth watching beyond the clothes.
With James Ivory's Howards End (1992), the emphasis shifts to the ensemble, with Wilby as Charles Wilcox and Emma Thompson providing much of the warmth and wit. His continuing association with director Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant makes sense: these literary adaptations need actors who can suggest the pressure of belonging to a particular class. We value Wilby's place in that company without pretending the film belongs to him. Some relationships hurry past, and the storytelling can feel episodic, but the attention to social slights makes this a film we recommend warmly.
Robert Altman's Gosford Park (2001) puts him in another closely observed ensemble, as Freddie Nesbitt. We laughed at Maggie Smith's casual scorn, and enjoyed the ensemble's sharp attention to class. Wilby's familiar upper-class casting is useful here, in a country-house mystery that asks us to watch everyone closely. His effectiveness in an ensemble is a reason to seek out these supporting parts, not merely to work back towards the leads. The plotting gets muddled, but the people remain worth the evening.
The reservation is that repeated posh casting can become too easy a shorthand for his abilities. Wilby himself resisted period work for two years in the early 1990s before taking Crocodile Shoes (1994). That choice is worth remembering before writing him off as a specialist in period costume. Follow Howards End with Maurice to see what happens when he gets the leading part.
Biography
James Wilby is an English actor. He was born on 20 February 1958 in Rangoon, Burma (now Yangon, Myanmar). He studied mathematics at Grey College, Durham University, before training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
Wilby made his screen debut in Privileged (1982). He is known for his leading role as Maurice Hall in the Merchant Ivory film Maurice (1987), for which he shared the Volpi Cup for Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival. Other notable film roles include Tony Last in A Handful of Dust (1988), Charles Wilcox in Howards End (1992) and Freddie Nesbitt in Gosford Park (2001). He has also appeared in television series including Agatha Christie's Poirot and Midsomer Murders.
