Alan Bates has donated £50,000 to The Actors' Centre in Covent Garden. The actor has displayed not only generosity (as has actors' union Actors' Equity, which matched his donation) but family loyalty in giving The Actors' Centre £50,000 for the refurbishment of the Tristan Bates Theatre, the Centre's auditorium.
The theatre, which Alan Bates helped found, is named in honour of his son, a model, who died aged 19, some ten years ago, of complications following an asthma attack when working in Japan. Bates's other son, Tristan's twin, is Benedick Bates who appeared earlier this year at the Lyric, Shaftesbury Avenue, in Thelma Holt's production of Noel Coward's Semi Monde. He is currently touring with his father in a stage version of Oscar Wilde's The Picture Of Dorian Gray.
— by Theatrenow
