1990s
After a series of dramatic roles on stage, most notably Vanya and Macbeth, Pryce decided he wanted to do musicals after seeing his friend Patti LuPone in the original London production of Les Misérables. He would successfully return to the stage originating the role of The Engineer, a Eurasian pimp, in the award winning West End musical Miss Saigon. His performance was praised in England where he won the Olivier and Variety Club awards, but when the production transferred to Broadway the Actors' Equity Association (AEA) would not allow Pryce to portray The Engineer because, according to their executive secretary, "he casting of a Caucasian actor made up to appear Asian is an affront to the Asian community". Cameron Mackintosh, the show's producer, decided to cancel the $10 million New York production because, he said, he would not let the freedom of artistic expression be attacked. Realizing that its decision would result in the loss of many jobs, and after Pryce received much support from the acting community (both Charlton Heston and John Malkovich threatened to leave the union if Pryce was not allowed to perform) the AEA decided to make a deal with Mackintosh, allowing Pryce to appear in the production. He would then, in 1991, win a Tony Award for his performance. Also in 1991 Pryce starred in the ITV mini-series Selling Hitler as Gerd Heidemann. Pryce returned to the London stage the following year to star for one night only at the Royal Festival Hall for an AIDS charity alongside Elaine Paige and Lilliane Montivecchi in the 1992 revival of the Federico Fellini-inspired musical Nine.
In 1993 Pryce featured, alongside Kathy Burke and Minnie Driver, in the BBC mini-series Mr. Wroe's Virgins, directed by Oscar winner Danny Boyle. Later that same year Pryce was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award and for a Golden Globe Award for his work as Henry Kravis in the HBO produced made-for-TV movie Barbarians at the Gate. Also during 1993, Pryce was set to star alongside River Phoenix and Judy Davis in the film Dark Blood, but production had to be shut down when, 11 days shy of completing production, Phoenix died of a drug overdose. Director George Sluizer, who owns the rights to what has been filmed, has made available some of the raw material, which features Pryce and Phoenix on a field in Utah, on his personal website. Between 1993 and 1997, Pryce, on a multi million dollar contract became the spokesman for Infiniti in a series of American television commercials, notably for the Infiniti J30 and Infiniti Q45. These advertisements were notable for their sophistication with Pryce even appearing alongside jazz singer Nancy Wilson in a Prague nightclub. These commercials were hilariously parodied on Saturday Night Live in 1993, with Mike Myers doing an impersonation of Pryce, spokesmodelling for sleek luxury toilets instead of automobiles. In 1994, Pryce portrayed Fagin in a revival of the musical Oliver!, and would star the following year alongside Emma Thompson in the film Carrington, which centres on a platonic relationship between gay writer Lytton Strachey and painter Dora Carrington. Pryce's portrayal of Strachey gained him the Best Actor Award at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.
The following year Pryce starred with Madonna and Antonio Banderas in his first musical film, Evita. In this Oscar-winning adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical, Pryce portrayed the Argentinian president Juan Perón. The movie's soundtrack was an international success. It contains over 30 songs sung mainly by Madonna, Banderas and Pryce, of which two are solos for Pryce: "She Is A Diamond" and "On The Balcony Of The Casa Rosada". After Evita, Pryce went on to portray Elliot Carver in the 1997 James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies. During the rest of the decade Pryce would play to his new acquired fame as a villain, portraying an assassin in Ronin, a corrupt Cardinal in the controversial Stigmata and, for Comic Relief, the Master in the Doctor Who special, Doctor Who and the Curse of Fatal Death. About this time Pryce sang at The Hollywood Bowl alongside opera singer Lesley Garrett in highlights from My Fair Lady and in 1998, he performed in Cameron Mackintosh's gala concert Hey, Mr Producer!, also as Professor Henry Higgins from My Fair Lady and reprising his role as the Engineer from Miss Saigon.
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