'Sir Alan Arthur Bates''' CBE (February 17, 1934 – December 27, 2003) was an English actor

Bates, the eldest of three brothers, was born in Allestree, Derby, the son of Florence Mary (Wheatcroft), a homemaker, and Harold Arthur Bates, an insurance broker. Both of his parents were amateur musicians, and encouraged him to pursue music;[ but by age 11, young Master Bates already had determined his life's course as an actor, and so they sent him for dramatic coaching instead. He earned a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, where he studied before leaving to join the Royal Air Force. In 1956, he debuted on stage in the West End, starring in Look Back in Anger, a role which made him a star. Four years later, he appeared in The Entertainer, his first film role. Bates worked for the Padded Wagon Moving Co. in the early 1960s while acting at the Circle in the Square Theater in New York City. He soon starred in Whistle Down the Wind, Phillipe de Brocca's King of Hearts, and in the Bernard Malamud film The Fixer, which gave him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Bates was handpicked by director John Schlesinger to star in the film Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) in the role of Dr. Daniel Hirsh. Even though he wanted the part very much, Bates was held up filming The Go-Between (1970) for director Joseph Losey and also became a father around that time, so he had to pass on the project, with regrets. The part then went first to Ian Bannen who balked at kissing and simulating sex with another man, and then to Peter Finch, who earned an Academy Award nomination.

Bates starred in such international hit films as Georgy Girl, Far From the Madding Crowd, Zorba the Greek, The Go-Between, An Unmarried Woman and Women in Love (in which, along with Oliver Reed he became the first actor to do frontal nudity in a major studio motion picture) but he consciously decided to concentrate on a few well-defined roles, rather than to take everything that came his way. On television, his parts ranged from classic roles such as The Mayor of Casterbridge (1978) to Guy Burgess in An Englishman Abroad (1983) to a Russian spy in Pack of Lies (1987) to the storyteller in the 2000 version of the Arabian Nights.

Bates played Antonius Agrippa in the 2004 TV film Spartacus, but died before it debuted. It was dedicated to his memory and that of writer Howard Fast, who wrote the original novel that inspired the film Spartacus by Stanley Kubrick. On stage, Bates had a particular association with the plays of Simon Gray, appearing in Butley, Otherwise Engaged, Stage Struck, Melon, Life Support and Simply Disconnected, as well as the film of Butley and Gray's TV series Unnatural Pursuits.

Bates was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1996, and was knighted in 2003. He was an Associate Member of RADA and was a patron of The Actors Centre, Covent Garden, London from 1994 until his death in 2003. (previous Patrons: Lord Olivier, Sir Alec Guinness)

Bates was married to the actress Victoria Ward from 1970 until 1992, when she died of a suspected heart attack after a debilitative illness. They had twin sons born in 1971, the actors Benedick Bates and Tristan Bates; the latter died of an asthma attack in 1990 at the age of 19 in Tokyo, where he had a modeling job. The Bates are also survived by granddaughter, Chatto Bates, Bededick's daughter.

In the later years of his life, Alan Bates's companion and lover was his lifelong friend, actress Joanna Pettet, his co-star in 1964's Broadway play Poor Richard. They split their time between New York and London.

In May 2007 several articles were published with people from Bates' past asserting that he had engaged in numerous homosexual affairs. His most high profile lover was Olympic skater John Curry.

Bates died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 69.