Nicky Henson

Nicky Henson was born in London, the son of Harriet Martha (Collins) and comedian Leslie Henson. He trained as a stage manager at RADA and made his theatrical debut in 1963, thereafter alternating between stage and screen. Henson was a member of the Young Vic Company from its inception in 1970 and later also joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre Company. He had the good looks and resonant voice perfectly suited to impersonating a diverse gallery of classic literary characters: Pozzo in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, as well as title roles in Later Leonardo (as Da Vinci in 1976) and Oedipus at the Crossroads (in 1977). Henson played a few leads in motion pictures, albeit mostly in low budget exploitation films. He is remembered for the cult horror film The Death Wheelers (1973) as the leader of a pack of zombie bikers. A keen motorcyclist himself, Henson