Rory Kinnear reflects on the impact of his actor father's death after a film stunt went wrong and says he's still moved to tears 40 years on

Rory Kinnear has reflected on the impact of his actor father's death after a film stunt went wrong and said he's still moved to tears 40 years on. 

Rory's father Roy, died at the age of 54 after being thrown from a horse while filming The Return of the Musketeers in 1988.

The actor, 48, was just 10 years old when his father passed away and his mother, actress Carmel Cryan, was left to bring up three children alone, including his profoundly disabled sister Karina.

Rory has now revealed that his grief didn't really hit him until he was 16 and he was left feeling angry because his father's death was unnecessary. 

Speaking to The Guardian, he said: 'He shouldn't have been on the horse. The stuntmen refused to do it. It was a cobbled bridge in Spain. Someone said "You can't put horses on cobbled bridges, what are you doing?" It was agreed that they'd just put some sand down and get the actors to do it.'

After his death, Rory's mother discovered a letter that his father hadn't had time to send, he explained: 'He'd written to my mum, "Just off to do a scene that the stuntmen said was too dangerous to do, so wish me good luck".' 

Rory added: 'It was also a hospital f***-up. He broke his pelvis. He shouldn't have died. He just needed a blood transfusion.' 

The family sued producer Pierre Spengler, director Richard Lester and the production company Falcon Films for negligence, and were awarded £650,000 in damages plus costs.

Earlier this year, Rory reflected on the death of his beloved sister Karina six years after she died from COVID.

Karina had been left severely disabled after suffering a lack of oxygen at birth that caused severe brain damage.

She caught COVID in the early months of the pandemic in May 2020 and died a week later at the age of 48.

Speaking about his long line of roles over his 26-year career, including playing three prime ministers, the actor was asked in a new interview with The Times if he channels what's inside him into the characters he plays.

'Usually there's something within me, yes,' he replied. 'But I don't think I'm unique in feeling there are lots of different people I could have been, or could still be.'

'We all have a multiplicity of personalities within ourselves. And acting is a two-way street. 

'Yes, I'm forgetting myself in portraying this other person, but I can't portray him without refracting him through the prism of my own experience.'

Rory spoke about Karina's death for the first time in an interview with The Guardian in May 2020, explaining how his sister had tested positive for coronavirus just over a week before her death, with the virus 'attacking' her stomach, lungs and kidneys.

Karina died with her family saying goodbye over FaceTime and the telephone.

The theatre star said he had 'played Karina one of her favourite songs and told her how proud I was to have been her brother and what gratitude I felt for what she had taught me about life'.

A nurse also held up Karina's iPad so her mother could narrate her favourite story to her via FaceTime on her mobile.

Karina had been left severely disabled after suffering a lack of oxygen at birth that caused severe brain damage.

She became paralysed from the waist down aged 19 following a lifesaving operation on her spine. She also suffered kidney damage after a battle with sepsis in 2014.

Karina, who needed lifelong care, had not been admitted to hospital for 18 months prior to her death, with Rory saying she had 'defied the odds' her entire life.

The Bill Tanner star added that 'no-one could describe Karina as weak' or 'more disposable as anyone else, saying: 'So it was coronavirus that killed her. It wasn't her 'underlying conditions'.'

Rory said: 'Karina's death is what we have feared ever since the disease took hold so rapaciously in Italy in February. Her lung capacity was so diminished that we knew, given the reports of its effects, that it was likely to prove incredibly dangerous for her.'

The actor also paid tribute to his older sister on BBC Radio 4's Today programme shortly after her death, calling her 'an anchor of kindness'.

Rory explained in his tribute that her inspiring approach to life is something he has held onto through his grief.

'Even the things I never thought I'd miss have become enveloped in a fondness,' he said. 'The smell of a hospital, the puffy hum of a nebuliser, the soft mechanical burr of a hoist.'

'And I have realised the privilege of growing up with these things as a norm, as an anchor. Because Karina required kindness to live and such was her spirit, her sense of humour, gentle strength, her vibrant passion to live.'

'What she was given, she returned with interest. A transaction of effort and reward. I was fortunate to witness so often. 

'That anchor of kindness has been what many of us have held onto in this year of loss, restriction and renewal. Even more so when we have felt its absence.'

Rory ended his emotional tribute with the words: 'Karina was sunshine. She just required you to engage, to pull back the curtains to see it. 

'An act that rewarded far more than it asked. For her, for all she taught me and revealed, it's the anchor of kindness I hope to hold onto tightest for the rest of my life.'

In honour of Karina, Rory's mother Carmel Cryan established The Roy Kinnear Trust in 1994, which was designed to improve the lives of physically and mentally disabled young people.

A specialist home named Roy Kinnear House – built for six young adults with severe disabilities – was opened in 2000. Karina lived there with others in a home 10 minutes drive from her mother's house.