Why we must remember
» Actor to compere show to mark 85th kindertransport anniversary » Hitler escapee Elsa, 97, visits star’s home
EVEN by his own admission, Tom Conti is more often than not the oldest person in the room these days. Now 82, the 1980s movie heartthrob says women who approach him now mostly want to tell him that their mum or gran love him.
So it’s quite a novelty to have a lady 15 years his senior sitting beside him on his sofa, whose story is every bit as fascinating as his own.
Tom wowed a new generation of film buffs last year as critics hailed his portrayal of Albert Einstein – after the Jewish scientist fled Nazi Germany – in Oscar-winner Oppenheimer.
It’s one reason why now, sitting at home in Hampstead, North London, he’s listening intently to Elsa Shamash, 97, recall her own dramatic escape as a child from Hitler’s persecution and sharing her autobiography, My Story.
Elsa was one of nearly 10,000 Jewish children rescued from Nazi-controlled territory and brought to safety in Britain, as part of the Kindertransport rescue before the Second World War.
And Tom will be the compere at a special 85th anniversary concert on May 12 to mark the occasion.
Tom says: “It’s important to do things like this, to keep remembering.
“Particularly because of the climate of today. It’s important to get involved.”
Michael Newman, CEO of the Association of Jewish Refugees, says: “The concert marks both the rich tapestry of family and heritage the Kinder left behind, and the chance they were given to make a new life in Britain.”
Tom adds: “It’s so hard to imagine what Elsa went through. Even listening to her, you can’t put yourself there. No matter how powerful your imagination is. You can’t imagine yourself in situations of such fear, when you just don’t know what is going to happen to your life.”
He felt the same about playing Einstein, a brief yet pivotal appearance in which the physicist, also a Jewish refugee, warns that Hitler could be building a nuclear bomb.
Tom was determined to get his portrayal right for such “a really important film”. He read a biography on Einstein but was keen to perfect his voice: “There is no film of Einstein with sound. The only piece I could find is a recording of him saying, ‘I agree’. I had to build his voice from that.”
Even more challenging was his appearance. “He had a big, horrid moustache,” says Tom. “How can anyone wear a moustache? You get soup in it, spaghetti sauce, everything. It’s just a terrible thing to have.
“Then there was the hair. On the first day I was in the makeup chair at 5am. It took for ever. At the end of the day, when they brought me in to wash it, I said, ‘let’s just leave it’.
“I didn’t wash it for five days, so I wouldn’t have to go through all that every day.” Once filming ended, Tom was told to keep the moustache in case of reshoots. “Eventually, I thought, ‘this is ridiculous’ and shaved it off. I told them if they wanted me in a moustache they’d have to stick it back on.”
Tom still gets attention from his army of older female fans. He chuckles: “Life for an actor starts with, ‘I love you’, then a few years pass and you get, ‘my mother loves you’, then, ‘Oh, my gran loves you’. It’ll be great-grandmothers soon!
“I’ve had knickers too. I’m flattered but the first thing I do is laugh. Am I supposed to wear them?”
Now, Tom says, his ventriloquist daughter Nina Conti – who won the BBC New Comedy Awards in 2002 – is becoming more famous than him.
“I’m no longer Tom Conti, I’m now Nina’s father! She works all over the world. I’m so proud of her.” When she invited him and mum Kara Wilson, Tom’s wife of 57 years, to see her show, it was the first they knew of her talent.
He says: “We went along with great trepidation. I was really scared for her. But I was just astounded. Since then she’s gone from strength to strength.”
Experienced in comedy, Tom, who played Miranda’s dad in the BBC sitcom, hopes to soon join Nina, 50.
“Nina got me to try ventriloquism,” he says. “She said I was good at it and that we should do a double act. It would be a fun thing to do.”
Born in Paisley, Scotland, with an Italian dad, Tom’s parents were hairdressers. After training at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, he won an Oscar nomination playing Scottish poet Gowan McGland in 1983 film Reuben, Reuben.
But he secured his heartthrob status playing lothario Costas with Pauline Collins in Shirley Valentine in 1989.
Tom later starred in 2012 superhero film The Dark Knight Rises and blockbuster Paddington 2, playing an irate judge who jails the loveable bear.
“I was worried kids would hate me for ever,” he says. “Thankfully, my
It’s so hard to imagine what Elsa went through TOM CONTI ON HEARING ABOUT HER ORDEAL
cantankerous character turns out to be all right in the end.”
But it is his role in two 1998 episodes of Friends, alongside Jennifer Saunders, playing the obnoxious parents of Ross’s wife Emily, that earned him grandad points.
“When I told the family I’d been asked to do some episodes, they all went crazy,” he laughs. “If I’d said ‘I’ve just been offered a movie with De Niro and Pacino’, they would have said, ‘oh, that’s terrific’. Say, ‘I’ve been asked to do Friends’ – it was like winning the lottery. “All these years on, my oldest grandson is a big fan of Friends. He’s very impressed that I was in it.” Despite fame, a collection of Rolls-Royces and selling his old home to film director Tim Burton for £11million, Tom is not retiring. He is working on a new production of Anton Chekhov play The Seagull.
“There are still many things to do, terrific actors who I’d love to work with,” he says. “I still haven’t realised my dream to work with Nicole Kidman. Actors never retire.”
■ To book tickets for the 85th anniversary concert of the Kindertransport on May 12 visit www. wigmore-hall.org.uk For more information, visit www.ajr.org.uk