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- Actor
- Soundtrack
Birmingham-born Raymond Huntley was one of those instantly recognisable, mannered types that popped up in classic British films of the 1940's and 50's. Tall and austere, he had a somewhat mean, sour-faced look, accentuated whenever staring with icy disdain from behind horn-rimmed spectacles. This, and his trademark dry delivery, made Huntley such perfect casting for an extensive array of ever-so-superior, humourless civil servants, mean-spirited bank managers, dullish clubroom snobs, smug business types, dour undertakers or sinister cold war spooks. Earlier in his career, Huntley essayed rather more overtly menacing characters, effectively typecast during the war years as Nazi officers ('Pimpernel' Smith (1941)) or German spies (Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It (1941)). It is hard to pick out two outstanding performances above all others, but he was arguably at his best as the local bank manager Wix in Passport to Pimlico (1949), emphatic in his greed to reap whatever benefits from the Burgundian declaration of independence; as the irascible boffin Laxton-Jones in Secret Flight (1946); and as Henry Chester, made resentful by his illness, in the Sanatorium segment of Trio (1950). Towards the end of his career, Huntley achieved his greatest popularity when he was cast as the grumpy family solicitor, Sir Geoffrey Dillon, in TV's Upstairs, Downstairs (1971).
Educated at King Edward's School, Raymond Huntley made his theatrical debut with the Birmingham Repertory Company in 1922. By the age of twenty-one, he played a septuagenarian farm labourer and was consequently hired as a comedian by a North Country revue for a starting salary of ten pounds a week. Huntley was reputedly the first actor to play Dracula on stage (in Hamilton Deane's hit 1927 London adaptation of the original novel), though it is fair to point out that an earlier reading of the play took place on May 18th, 1897, at the Lyceum Theatre, arranged by none other than the author Bram Stoker himself. In any event, Huntley's superb handling of the character established the direction his future career would take.- Actor
- Producer
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Robert Flemyng was born on 3 January 1912 in Liverpool, England, UK. He was an actor and producer, known for Funny Face (1957), Kafka (1991) and Battle of Britain (1969). He was married to Carmen Martha Sugars. He died on 22 May 1995 in London, England, UK.- Niall MacGinnis is not as well known outside of Europe, but he was a wonderful character actor whose variety of roles matched his great gift for characterization and the look beyond just makeup that he projected. He was educated at Stonyhurst College and Trinity College, Dublin. He obtained a basic medical education which qualified him as a house (resident) surgeon during World War II in the Royal Navy. But after the war he decided to pursue acting. He worked in stage repertoire and stock companies and moved on to do significant stage work at the Old Vic Theatre in London, where John Gielgud was director and Shakespeare has a particular focus. MacGinnis had the burly look of a farm hand with a large head and curly hair falling away from a progressively receding hairline. He could portray a broad enough accent - or little at all, as the case might be - which could entail any part of the British Isles.
He moved on to film work in 1935 when British sound cinema was hitting its stride. He met young but well experienced director Michael Powell, who was eager to sell his script for an intriguing film to be shot on the furthest island from the north coast of the UK, Foulda. Alexander Korda was impressed and optioned the production of this script for The Edge of the World (1937), and MacGinnis got the nod as the central protagonist, Andrew Gray. Soon after in 1938, MacGinnis worked with Old Vic mentor and director Gielgud for a role in an early TV production of the play "Spring Meeting" (1938). As the war years ensued and before his own service, MacGinnis did several war effort films, most notably asked by Powell to take the role of a German U-boat cook in 49th Parallel (1941). The film sported a great ensemble cast, including Leslie Howard and Raymond Massey, and was shot in Canada where the drama unfolded, but it lacked the drive to keep the story vital. MacGinnis shone as the good-natured peasant who loved food and had no use for Nazi strictures and warring on the world. Luckily for Powell, the movie with its flag waving spirit was a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic.
By the late 1940s, MacGinnis was donning historical garb for what would be some of his most familiar roles. Olivier remembered him and gave him small but standout roles in both his Henry V (1944) and Hamlet (1948). At about that time MacGinnis began associations with American film actors and production money coming over to Britain, the first being with Fredric March and his wife Florence Eldridge in Christopher Columbus (1949). He finally came to American shores with an appearance on Broadway in "Caesar and Cleopatra" in late 1951 through April of 1952. In 1952 back in England, he had a supporting role as the Herald in a screen version of the story of Thomas a' Becket titled Murder in the Cathedral (1951). Interestingly, he was also in the much better known and Hollywood-financed Becket (1964), as one of the four murderous barons. When MGM came back to England to follow up its previous visit and subsequent huge hit, Ivanhoe (1952), with Knights of the Round Table (1953), MacGinnis had a brief but again noticeable role as the Green Knight, bound by loss of combat to Robert Taylor as Ivanhoe. The next year brought one of his rare lead roles, an exemplary one in every measure. As Luther in Martin Luther (1953), MacGinnis joined a mostly British cast in a US/West German co-production and American director Irving Pichel with West German and historical scenery topped with a first rate script with American and German co-writers. It received two Oscar nominations.
Into the later 1950s, MacGinnis held to a steady diet of sturdy movie roles, usually supporting but always memorable because of his great acting skill. Historically, he went further back in time with several films of epic Ancient Greece, first as King Menelaus in Helen of Troy (1956), an American/Italian co-production with Robert Wise directing. That same year he stayed on the continent for another epic, this time Alexander the Great (1956) with American director Robert Rossen in an US/Spanish co-production that enlisted another first tier British cast, centered on box office idol Richard Burton, along with former co-star Freddy March. MacGinnis finally made it to Mount Olympus - that is, playing Zeus - in the rousing US/UK co-production of Jason and the Argonauts (1963), certainly best remembered for the stop motion animation magic of Ray Harryhausen.
Yet, MacGinnis' perhaps best remembered role - certainly to discriminating fans of horror/fantasy - was that of two-faced Dr. Julian Karswell, jocular magician - but deadly serious cult leader and demon conjurer (loosely based on the outrageous English social rebel and occultist Aleister Crowley). The film Curse of the Demon (1957) (the American cut was renamed "Curse of the Demon") was a stylishly atmospheric and convincingly spooky outing directed by Jacques Tourneur, the protégé of Hollywood veteran film producer Val Lewton, best known for Cat People (1942). Based on M.R. James' Edwardian ghost story, "Casting the Runes," the film is now considered a classic of the genre with MacGinnis, sporting a devilish goatee, having fun with his split personality but also effectively betraying his inward fear of the powers he has unleashed. He easily stole the show from co-star Dana Andrews, as the stubborn American psychologist almost done in by the demon he does not believe exists.
Through the 1960s and into the 1970s, MacGinnis kept to up a fairly steady stream of varied historical and contemporary movie roles, always noticeable, and in some of the high profile films of the period, including: Billy Budd (1962), The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965), and the Cinerama adventure Krakatoa: East of Java (1968). There were some TV spots as well to showcase his character-molding talents into the year of his passing to round out a body of over 75 screen appearances. - Actor
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Good-natured British actor Jimmy Hanley was groomed by the Rank Studio system during his teen years and earned stardom as the "boy next door" type in exuberant musicals and likeable comedies. He married actress Dinah Sheridan in 1942 and they appeared together in a number of featherweight war-era films, including Salute John Citizen (1942) and For You Alone (1945). When Jimmy grew up he tried everything from Henry V (1944) with Laurence Olivier to The Huggetts film series. But radio and TV were his forte and it was those two mediums which revived his star in the late 50s, becoming a familiar face on a number of TV series, notably "Jim's Inn" co-starring second wife Maggie Hanley, which ran from 1957-1963. Jimmy died of cancer in 1970.- Jack Watling was born on 13 January 1923 in Chingford, Essex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Night to Remember (1958), The Winslow Boy (1948) and Paradise Lagoon (1957). He was married to Patricia Hicks. He died on 22 May 2001 in Chelmsford, Essex, England, UK.
- Leslie Dwyer was born on 28 August 1906 in Catford, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Holiday Week (1952), Not So Dusty (1956) and Hi-de-Hi! (1980). He died on 29 December 1986 in Truro, Cornwall, England, UK.
- Michael Goodliffe was born on 1 October 1914 in Bebington, Cheshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Night to Remember (1958), Peeping Tom (1960) and The One That Got Away (1957). He was married to Dorothy Margaret Tyndale. He died on 20 March 1976 in Wimbledon, London, England, UK.
- Actor
- Soundtrack
The British character actor Laurence Naismith was a Merchant Marine seaman before becoming an actor. He made his London stage debut in 1927 in the chorus of the musical "Oh, Boy." Three years later, he joined the Bristol Repertory and remained with them until the outbreak of World War II. After serving nine years in the Royal Artillery (with the final rank of Acting Battery Commander), Naismith returned to the stage and also made his film debut. His seafaring background came in handy in a number of film roles, including the steamboat captain in Mogambo (1953), Dr. Hawkins in Boy on a Dolphin (1957), the captain of the Titanic in A Night to Remember (1958), and the First Sea Lord in Sink the Bismarck! (1960). Naismith also made numerous television appearances, including the recurring roles of Judge Fulton on The Persuaders! (1971) and Father Harris on Oh, Father! (1973).- Geoffrey Keen was born on 21 August 1916 in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Moonraker (1979) and For Your Eyes Only (1981). He was married to Doris Groves, Madeline Howell and Hazel Terry. He died on 3 November 2005 in Denville Hall, Northwood, Hillingdon, London, England, UK.
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- Script and Continuity Department
Kenneth went to a grammar school in South Wales where the English literary teacher had the class read out parts in plays, which was the one thing he enjoyed; as a result, he was put in a play about Richard II. A local critic wrote, 'If this boy chooses to make the stage a career he should do well,' which gave Kenneth the idea of acting despite never having seen an actor or a theatre up to then. He left school at 15 with no idea of what to do apart from joining the army which would provide him with a uniform and food and possibly send him to India. Instead he went to Cambridge at 15½ to work in an ironmongers. He went to the stage door of the Cambridge Theatre with some of his notices and asked for the producer, who gave him a job at £3 a week. Despite having had no formal theatre training he made 70+ films, as well as researching and directing two of his own documentaries.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Meredith Edwards was born on 10 June 1917 in Rhosllannerchrugog, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for A Run for Your Money (1949), Flower of Evil (1961) and The Great Game (1953). He was married to Daisy Clark. He died on 8 February 1999 in Denbighshire, Wales, UK.- The character actor Nigel Green, born in Pretoria, South Africa, in 1924, was educated in England and studied chemical engineering before winning a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. By age 24, he was appearing on stage at both the Old Vic and Stratford-on-Avon, and in the early 1950s, he made his film and television debuts. In 1956, he received serious injuries in an accident, but he fully recovered and established himself as a familiar figure in British film and television. His forceful, dominant manner inevitably led Green to military and authoritarian roles throughout his career while his tall, muscular physique was appropriate for playing such characters as Fertog "The Bear" in the television series William Tell (1958), Little John in Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960), and Hercules in Jason and the Argonauts (1963). Green had a number of small film roles in the early 1960s until his appearance in the critically acclaimed Zulu (1964), after which his film roles improved. Perhaps his best-known performance is that of Michael Caine 's superior in the stylish spy film The Ipcress File (1965). In addition to a few British horror films, such as The Skull (1965), The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), and Countess Dracula (1971), Green also appeared in a number of Hollywood films, including Tobruk (1967), The Wrecking Crew (1968) and The Kremlin Letter (1970). Green's later films brought him international recognition and a chance at stardom; however, his career was brought to an abrupt end by his sudden death in 1972 at age 47 from an overdose of sleeping pills. It is unknown if his death was intentional, although Green's family believed it to be accidental. He was separated from his wife at the time of his death.
- Peter Arne was for a short time the perfect villain in British film. After a couple of roles in war movies (The Purple Plain (1954) and The Cockleshell Heroes (1955)) and a Tarzan movie (Tarzan and the Lost Safari (1957)) he became a villain in Strangers' Meeting (1957). From than on he continued to play sinister types in The Moonraker (1958), Intent to Kill (1958), Breakout (1959), Conspiracy of Hearts (1960), The Hellfire Club (1961) and The Secret of Monte Cristo (1961). He was very convincing as a Cromwell officer, an Italian camp commander or a Nazi officer. Several times he had sword fights as a devious count. In 1962 he was a pirate sidekick of Christopher Lee in The Pirates of Blood River (1962), but a new kid on the block by the name of Oliver Reed challenged him and killed him halfway through the picture. It seemed like a symbolic fight because for a while Oliver Reed played the roles in Hammer Pictures that Peter Arne could have played and Arne moved to TV roles. His days as a leading actor were over and he continued work in TV and in bit parts in features. Sometimes directors he worked with before brought him back for a little role. In 1972 he got a nice break with "The Stallion", a TV movie in which he starred with a horse. He was also in a couple of Blake Edwards movies. He became an antique dealer with his sister as a sideline. He was murdered at the age of 63 shortly after being cast in Doctor Who (1963).
- A distinguished stage and screen actor, Lyndon Brook was the son of the silent British film star Clive Brook, and the actress, Mildred Evelyn. His elder sister, Faith Brook, is one of Britain's best known stage and TV actresses. Brook was best-known to cinema-goers of the 1950s and 60s for his quiet sympathetic roles in films such as The Purple Plain (1954) and Reach for the Sky (1956) and he was also a successful writer of dramas and light comedies. Born in Los Angeles, where his father worked for much of his career, he was educated in England at Stowe and Cambridge. At Cambridge, he founded his own drama group, in which he both acted and directed. He began appearing on the London stage in the 1940s before gaining wider recognition in the cinema during the 1950s. One of his most memorable roles was as "Johnny Sanderson" in Reach for the Sky (1956), the biographical drama based on the life of RAF hero Douglas Bader. Brook also narrated the film which went on to become one of the cinema's most successful World War Two dramas. In 1951, he met his future wife, the actress Elizabeth Kentish, whilst they were appearing on the London stage, in a play with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. His later notable film appearances included Song Without End (1960), in which he played "Wagner" to Dirk Bogarde's "Liszt", Pope Joan (1972), with Liv Ullmann, The Hireling (1973) and Defense of the Realm (1985). He made numerous television appearances but one of his most memorable roles was as "King George VI" in Churchill and the Generals (1979). Brook's most successful play was "Mixed Doubles" (1969), which has been performed all over the world.
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Ronald Adam was a man who combined an acting career with an extra-ordinary military career that encompassed being a victim of the Red Baron in World War One to taking his revenge as an RAF fighter controller in the Battle of Britain. Born Ronald George Hinings Adams on the last day of 1896, he was educated at University College, London. When still only 17 years of age, Adams volunteered to join the British army on the outbreak of the first world war. On December 2nd 1914, he was commissioned as a temporary second Lieutenant in the 15th (reserve) battalion of the Middlesex regiment. He then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) as an observer and then undertook pilot training. Adams then served with 18 squadron and flew Sopwith Camel's with 44 squadron on home defense duties. He then joined 73 squadron, also flying Sopwith Camel's in France. On April 7th 1918, he was shot down near Villers-Brettoneux in northern France. Historians still debate who shot down Adams, some argue his victor was Ltn Hans Kirchstein, but many others think that he was the 78th victim of the legendary Baron Manfred von Richthofen, known to history as "The Red Baron". Adams was wounded and captured and, on the evening of his aerial defeat, was visited by a German orderly who gave him Von Richthofen's compliments. Ronald Adams spent eight months in hospitals and prison camps before he was re-repatriated on 17th December 1918, the 15th anniversary of the Wright brothers first powered flight.
Post-war Adams trained as a chartered accountant and then moved into theatre management, running the Embassy Theatre in London. He then decided to become an actor proper, altering his name slightly to Ronald Adam. He also wrote books and several of his plays were staged. From 1936 he began to work in films. On the outbreak of the second world war Ronald Adam rejoined the Royal Air Force (RAF) and during the Battle of Britain which raged over England in the summer of 1940 he was the fighter controller for the Hornchurch sector. No matter how good the RAF's Spitfire and Hurricanes were, they could not be effective unless they could intercept the armada of incoming German planes. It was Wing Commander Ronald Adam's job to co-ordinate the RAF fighter command interceptions from data gathered by radar and ground observers and then dispatch fighters to intercept. It was a vital role in one of histories decisive battles in which the future of western civilization was at stake. Post war Ronald Adam lived in Surbiton, Surrey and died on 28th March 1979. He was 83 years of age.- Actor
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Howard Marion-Crawford was born on 17 January 1914 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969). He was married to Germaine Tighe-Umbers, Junia Crawford, Mary Wimbush and Jeanne Scott-Gunn. He died on 24 November 1969 in Chelsea, London, England, UK.- Sydney Tafler was born on 31 July 1916 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), Operation Diplomat (1953) and It Always Rains on Sunday (1947). He was married to Joy Shelton. He died on 8 November 1979 in London, England, UK.
- Tony Award-winning English actor Michael Gough, best known for playing the butler Alfred Pennyworth in the first four Batman (1989, 1992, 1995 & 1997) movies and for playing the arch-criminal Dr. Clement Armstrong in The Avengers (1961) episode "The Cybernauts", was an accomplished performer on both stage and screen. He was nominated twice for Tony Awards, in 1979 for Best Featured Actor in a Play for Alan Ayckbourn's "Bedroom Farce" and in 1988 in the same category for Hugh Whitemore's "Breaking the Code", winning in 1979. Though he never achieved on the small screen and silver screen what he did in the theater, Gough's career in television and movies spanned sixty-plus years over eight decades. Michael Gough died at age 94 on March 17, 2011 at his home near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England.
- Sam was a very well known, un-sung, British Actor from 1946 to his death in 1982. He was originally born in Northern Ireland but came over to London England as a boy with his mother and her brothers, setting up home in Bayswater, then Shepherd's Bush, then Chiswick. He was sent to Dunstable school. Before the Second World war he worked at Alvis Cars and Whiteley's Department Store in the bedding department but also entered Talent Contests as a stand up and impressionist. He got a job with the Oscar Rabin Band at the Hammersmith Palais as part of his 'Hot Shots' introducing the band's numbers, and telling a few gags and tap dancing in a few numbers. In 1939 at the start of the war, he was called up as he'd been very briefly in the Territorial Army. According to his autobiography, "Quick Mum He's on Now" he made over 240 films, many of the titles as yet unloaded to IMDb. The autobiography, recently discovered by his son Jonathan (also on IMDb) in his mother's loft after her death, was never published during his lifetime, but is a witty informative follow up to his successful "For You the War is Over" written about his incarceration in a German prison camp from 1939 to 45 , and selling over 40,000 in paperback. He similarly made thousands of TV appearances once more uncredited. Jonathan intends to publish the book next year.
- A distinguished stage actor, Ernest Clark was best known to British television viewers for his role as the crusty "Sir Geoffrey Loftus" in the long running "Doctor" comedy series during the 1970s.
Born in Maida Vale, Clark was the son of a master builder and was educated at Marylebone Grammar School. His first job was as a reporter on a local newspaper and he was also a keen amateur actor.
He made his first professional appearance at the Festival Theatre, Cambridge in 1937 and, throughout the 1930s and 40s, was rarely off the West End stage. In New York in 1950, he garnered rave reviews for his appearance in T.S. Eliot's "The Cocktail Party".
A prolific screen character actor, he was usually cast in cold, tight-lipped roles in British war films.
He was vice-president of Equity, the British actor's union, from 1964-69 and president from 1970-73. An articulate, outspoken and often witty commentator for the acting profession, he always argued on the side of regulated entry into what he described as "an overcrowded industry".
Clark's first two marriages were dissolved. His third wife was 'Julia Lockwood', the daughter of the British film star Margaret Lockwood. - Actor
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Anton Diffring was a character actor who worked continuously in motion pictures due to his aristocratic face and cool, clipped diction, making him ideal for typecasting in British and later American motion pictures as Nazis and other vile, despicable characters. What was ironic about his typecasting as a Nazi is that Diffring, born in Koblenz, Germany, on October 20, 1916, fled Nazi Germany in 1939.
He was the son of Bertha (Diffring) and Solomon/Samuel Pollack, a Jewish shop owner. He was born into a family that boasted generations of actors, and studied drama in Berlin and Vienna. At the outbreak of World War II, he fled Germany and wound up in Canada, where he was interned as an enemy alien for the duration of the war. It was in Canada where he began his acting career after World War II, working primarily there and in the US before moving to Britain in 1950.
He became popular playing Nazis in the postwar period, as the British film industry turned out film after film about the war, which created a great demand for actors who could convincingly play Nazis, the nastier the better. Diffring could play nasty, and his career as a character actor soared. He was still going at it in the 1960s, when he began appearing in American and international co-productions as German soldiers from both WW I and WW II, including The Blue Max (1966), Counterpoint (1967) and that Turner Network Television staple, Where Eagles Dare (1968). He was still going at it in the 1970s and 1980s, as he continued a nearly 40-year-long acting career that was terminated only by his death.
He was a much better actor than most of his roles required. Diffring broadened his range as an actor with stage and television work, but the movies continually beckoned, as casting agents were hooked on him when it came to Nazi roles. It was that face that did it; it was both his blessing and his curse. He had the light hair, the piercing blue eyes and the chiseled face of the haughty aristocrat, the German Junker, but it was a face that could telegraph much in the few seconds that was the average shot of a motion picture. As a character actor, he got much done with less (time).
In François Truffaut's Fahrenheit 451 (1966) he was cast in all likelihood as a counterpart to the Austrian actor Oskar Werner, so that Werner's own Teutonicness in the English setting wouldn't be as arch. He excelled as Werner's nemesis, as he could create a mood or signal an entire story line with just a look; dialog didn't matter (he likely would have been a superstar in silent films, when it was "the faces" that mattered).
Diffring tried to break out of those silken villain roles, moving to Rome in 1968, but producers turned to him again and again to fill their needs for a foreign heavy. He appeared as one of the most infamous Nazis of all, Adolf Hitler's hangman Reinhard Heydrich, in Operation Daybreak (1975), and as Hitler's foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in the American mini-series The Winds of War (1983). It made him a good living and it made him known, even if it did not fulfill his artistic ambitions.
What made his career such a success in terms of its longevity and fecundity was that Diffring was an actor who was enjoyable to watch. From Jack Clayton's I Am a Camera (1955) to Terence Fisher's The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959), from Samuel Fuller's Tote Taube in der Beethovenstraße (1972) to Ken Russell's Valentino (1977), Diffring gave memorable performances, sandwiched in with all the Nazi heavies one career could possibly bear.
Anton Diffring died at his home in Chateauneuf-de-Grasse, France, on May 20, 1989. He was 72 years old.- Actor
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Born in Nuremberg on February 27, 1910, the son of a school teacher, well-known German actor Wolfgang Preiss started studying philosophy and theatre sciences alternately (including dance training) and made his stage debut in 1932 in Munich. He appeared in many theatres throughout his country in the 30s including Heidelberg, Bonn, Bremen, Stuttgart, Baden-Baden and Berlin.
Beginning in a couple of early 1940s German films, WWII interrupted Preiss' movie output for quite some time, but, in many ways, the war never left him, for he would continue playing war-time colonels, generals, and field marshals for the duration of his prolific career.
Following more theatre and radio work, Preiss returned to post-war German filming and was seldom seen out of uniform with a mass of pictures including Deadly Decision (1954), The Plot to Assassinate Hitler (1955) (starring role), Der Cornet - Die Weise von Liebe und Tod (1955), Anastasia: The Czar's Last Daughter (1956), Stresemann (1957), Haie und kleine Fische (1957) and I Was All His (1958). His diabolical tendencies also lent to his casting as the title criminal mastermind in a series of mystery films: The 1,000 Eyes of Dr. Mabuse (1960), The Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961), The Invisible Dr. Mabuse (1962), The Terror of Doctor Mabuse (1962) and Dr. Mabuse vs. Scotland Yard (1963).
Preiss continued to keep his Nazi uniform starched and pressed as he branched out internationally for such 1960's war films as The Counterfeit Traitor (1962), The Longest Day (1962), The Cardinal (1963), The Train (1964), Von Ryan's Express (1965), Is Paris Burning? (1966), Anzio (1968) and Battle of the Commandos (1969). As the nemesis of such American heroes as William Holden, Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, Robert Mitchum and Peter Falk, he moved into the next decade with portrayals of Rommel in Raid on Rommel (1971) starring Richard Burton and Field Marshal Von Rundstedt in Richard Attenborough's A Bridge Too Far (1977) which featured an international star cast.
Preiss would appear in over 100 German and continental productions in his lifetime. Other popular filming would include featured roles in The Salzburg Connection (1972), The Boys from Brazil (1978), Bloodline (1979) and The Formula (1980). In his twilight years, Preiss turned more and more to TV as part of the ensemble casts of the quality miniseries Wallenstein (1978), The Winds of War (1983) and War and Remembrance (1988). He ended his career with a role in the French adventure movie drama Aire libre (1996).
Preiss died on November 27, 2002, at the age of 92, as the result of a fall. Married three times, he was survived by his third wife, Ruth, whom he married in 1955.- Actor
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The son of a stage manager, Basil Sydney entered the acting profession in 1909. His burgeoning career was interrupted by the outbreak of World War I, during which he saw action with the Norfolk Regiment in the British Army. In the early 1920's, Basil established himself as a matinée idol on the London stage. His film debut, however, took place on the other side of the Atlantic in the silent feature Romance (1920), based on a play by Edward Sheldon. His co-star was the prominent American Broadway star Doris Keane, with whom he had appeared in the theatrical performance of the play five years prior and subsequently married. Basil was rapidly promoted through a starring role in his second screen outing, the comedy Red Hot Romance (1922), but decided to turn down the offer of a lucrative Hollywood contract. His single-minded insistence on being cast exclusively in roles based on works by Shakespeare or Shaw led him to New York and back to the theatre. He spent the remainder of the decade as a leading player on Broadway, playing the parts he craved and duly receiving critical plaudits for his Mercutio of "Romeo and Juliet" (1922-23) and for his leads as Hamlet (1925-26) and Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew" (1927-28).
Basil did not return to films until 1932, back in Britain and henceforth as a burly character actor, albeit of never less than commanding presence. His stock-in-trade were shifty opportunists, public servants, domineering fathers or military types. He alternated smoothly between charming or dependable and menacing or sinister. Generally typed as a quintessential Englishman, his casting as a German infiltrator in the wartime drama Went the Day Well? (1942), lent additional gravitas to the warning against complacency. Otherwise, he stood out as Caesar's military aide-de-camp Rufio in the decidedly stodgy screen adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra (1945); as the brutish squire Nick Helmar in the period Gainsborough melodrama Jassy (1947); as the indefatigable Captain Smollett battling the pirates of Treasure Island (1950) and as Waldemar Fitzurse, advisor to the devious Prince John (played by Guy Rolfe) in MGM's excellent Technicolor swashbuckler Ivanhoe (1952).- Derek Farr was born on 7 February 1912 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Quiet Wedding (1941), The Circle (1957) and Wanted for Murder (1946). He was married to Muriel Pavlow and Carole Lynne. He died on 21 March 1986 in London, England, UK.
- In the 1950s, Bill Kerr was one of Tony Hancock's regular sidekicks in the popular radio series 'Hancock's Half Hour'. In the first series he was smarter than Tony, but as the series progressed he became more and more stupid and childlike, regularly calling Tony 'Tubb'. Despite remaining on the radio series throughout its six year run, when the TV series began he was not required.
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Harold Goodwin (22 October 1917 - 3 June 2004) was an English actor born in Wombwell, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, England.
Goodwin trained at RADA and was a stage actor at Liverpool repertory theatre for 3 years. He appeared in numerous British films of the 1950s and 1960s, usually playing 'flat cap' wearing working class characters from Northern England or low ranks in the military.
He had significant parts in the war films The Dam Busters (playing Guy Gibson's batman, 'Crosby'), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Longest Day. He can also be seen in films such as The Ladykillers, Sea of Sand, Angels One Five and The Cruel Sea (in which he was the ASDIC operator).
He also made hundreds of British TV appearances in programmes such as Minder (as Dunning, episode Get Daley!, 1984) and a notable role in All Creatures Great and Small. Goodwin was a 'staple' of the popular 1980s sitcom, That's My Boy. His last major television appearance was playing the part of Joss Shackleton, father to Vera Duckworth, in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street (1960) in the early 1990s.
He also appeared in an episode of One Foot in the Grave (1990) as a window cleaner.- Actor
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The massive brooding face and nose of British actor Percy Herbert is familiar to movie goers and TV audiences alike. A seemingly unlikely stage discovery by no one less than the great Dame Sybil Thorndike of British theater, Herbert moved into movie roles by the early 1950s. Initially fitting in as a featured cockney character, he nevertheless moved on to a wide variety of roles, especially as British and American soldier characters, some notable early ones being in The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Guns of Navarone (1961). An interesting coincidence was that his character name was Grogan in both movies - though he was promoted from a private in the first movie to a sergeant in the second.
He always seemed at home, lending a believable accent and memorable presence to such as: the menacing baron who joins in the killing of Archbishop Thomas Becket, Richard Burton, in Becket (1964), the hapless Confederate soldier-with a broad southern accent of Mysterious Island (1961), the sensible Scots-American deputy Mac Gregor in TV's short-lived Cimarron Strip (1968) with Stuart Whitman. In the course of over 90 film appearances, Herbert fitted in and lent to genres from fantasy and horror to history and drama with a sort of sturdy and matter-of-fact competence which makes him a most memorable big and small screen presence.- André Morell was born on 20 August 1909 in St. Pancras, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Ben-Hur (1959), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and The Message (1976). He was married to Joan Greenwood. He died on 28 November 1978 in London, England, UK.
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Terence Longdon appeared in four early black and white Carry Ons. His main roles were in the first two films in the series. In 1958, he had a significant supporting turn as Miles Heywood, an upper crust chap who although doing National Service and coming from a military background, did not want to make his career the army. This came as a great disappointment to Eric Barker! Terence then graduated to the role of romantic lead in Carry On Nurse, mainly due to the absence of Bob Monkhouse from this film. In Nurse, Terence played journalist Ted York, holed up in the men's ward at Haven Hospital. Originally he was set the task of writing about what the NHS was really like, however that is soon forgotten when he falls for the charms of Shirley Eaton's Nurse Dorothy Denton.
Longdon missed Carry On Teacher, the next film in the series, but returned to Pinewood for a cameo role as a dodgy confidence trickster who nearly cons Police Constable Kenneth Williams out of his Post Office savings in Carry On Constable. This one scene is a marked change for Terence and this role together with his part in the next film jar slightly. It feels like he is simply being included as a familiar face while being given little to do. In Carry On Regardless, Terence is limited to just a few scenes as one of Sid James' Helping Hands. He barely gets a look in as Kenneths Williams and Connor get the majority of the screen time.
And that was it for Terence and the Carry Ons. Terence recorded audio commentaries for two of his Carry Ons in 2006 and according to him, he was asked to become a series regular after Regardless but turned it down as he wanted to do other things. That would explain why he did not appear in any other series entries. So what else did Terence Longdon get up to in his career?
Terence made his first screen appearance in 1951, playing the role of Metellus in a television play entitled Androcles and the Lion. This was followed by several other roles in the 1950s and early 1960s. He appeared in the following films: Simon and Laura (starring Kay Kendall); Helen Of Troy (with Nora Swinburne and Stanley Baker); Jumping For Joy (with Frankie Howerd); Doctor At Large (with Dirk Bogarde); Another Time, Another Place (with Sean Connery, Lana Turner and a certain Sidney James); What A Wopper (again with Sid James) and perhaps most famously in Ben Hur, playing Drusus.
On television, Terence starred in a children's series called Garry Halliday between 1959 and 1962, playing a Biggles type character who was always off on thrilling missions. He also took roles in such series as The Army Game, Danger Man, Ivanhoe and Emergency Ward 10.
Later in the 1960s, Terence Longdon returned to the theatre and played in several long theatrical runs, both in the West End and further afield. He even spent six months on a tour of the United States with the Old Vic. This meant screen roles became few and far between, although he did appear in an episode of The New Avengers in 1977 alongside Joanna Lumley, Martin Shaw and Lewis Collins. He also popped in films such as The Wild Geese and The Sea Wolves, both in the late 1970s.
On stage, Terence worked in the West End with the likes of Peter Cushing, Stanley Baker, John Gielgud and he even understudied the great Paul Schofield. In the early 1950s he spent three years at Stratford, playing roles that included Cassio in Othello, Prince Hal in Henry IV, Part 1 and Oliver in As You Like It. He later completed over 1000 performances in the West End in the comedy The Secretary Bird.
In 1982 he turned up in the cobbled streets of Weatherfield, playing Wilf Stockwell, a client at Mike Baldwin's denim factory. This brought Wilf into contact with the legendary Elsie Tanner and the pair became rather friendly, much to the dismay of Wilf's wife Dot, played by Barbara Young. Terence then made only rare appearances on the small screen, most notably alongside Victoria Wood in her As Seen On TV series in the late 1980s and also in an episode of The Return of Sherlock Holmes. Terence Longdon more or less retired from acting in 2003.
Terence was born Hubert Tuelly Longdon in Newark-On-Trent, Nottinghamshire, in May 1922. He originally planned to sit exams to enter the Civil Service, however the Second World War broke out and he joined the Fleet Air Arm. It was while in the Air Force that he first became involved in amateur dramatics and encouraged by this experience, he enrolled at RADA after the war ended. Stage work at the Lyceum in Sheffield soon followed.
Terence Longdon married the actress Barbara Jefford in 1953. This union ended in divorce in 1960. He much later married again, this time to Gillian Conyers, in 2004. They were married until his death from cancer in April 2011 at the age of 88.- Actor
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Cyril Raymond was born on 13 February 1899 in Rowley Regis, Staffordshire, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Brief Encounter (1945), The Ghost Train (1931) and Thunder in the City (1937). He was married to Gillian Lind and Iris Hoey. He died on 20 March 1973 in Ripe, Sussex, England, UK.- Mervyn Johns was born on 18 February 1899 in Pembroke, Wales, UK. He was an actor, known for Dead of Night (1945), A Christmas Carol (1951) and The Day of the Triffids (1963). He was married to Diana Churchill and Alice Maud Steele Wareham. He died on 6 September 1992 in Norwood, England, UK.
- Lean, jaunty British character actor with military-style moustache and easy manner who specialised in playing dapper scoundrels, philanderers, dissipated bon vivants and con artists in a career lasting three and a half decades. Born in Hove, East Sussex, he spent two years working on the London stock exchange before making his move to acting. On stage from 1928, he was initially cast as outright villains. He landed his first worthy part in the George Formby musical comedy Keep Fit (1937), establishing his typical screen personae playing the role of Brian Curtis in Terence Rattigan's French Without Tears (1940) (having previously appeared in the original London stage production in November 1936). Ironically, Middleton seems to have relished his lady-killer image in real life since he was at the time involved with the wife of co-star Rex Harrison - himself no stranger to extra-marital affairs.
Well in the groove as raffish playboy, silly-ass, jolly RAF-type or shady double-dealer, Middleton was consistently excellent in support during the 40's and 50's: as Fogroy in Notorious Gentleman (1945); as debonair games master Victor Hyde-Brown in The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950); as womanizing cad Simon Russell, behind the wheel of a sporty jalopy, in Laughter in Paradise (1951); or as Victor Manifold, plying his buddies with bootleg whiskey, in Young Wives' Tale (1951). He was also the initial choice for the part of Amrose Claverhouse for the film Genevieve (1953) but lost out to Kenneth More. On television, he partnered Hylda Baker (in drag) as 'Cynthia', in the stand-up comedy show Be Soon (1957). His final role of note was as a senior general in Richard Attenborough's Oh! What a Lovely War (1969). Middleton retired in 1970 and died three years later at the age of 66. - Edward Rigby was born on 5 February 1879 in Ashford, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Stars Look Down (1940), Young and Innocent (1937) and A Canterbury Tale (1944). He was married to Phyllis [Muriel Mary] Austin (novelist). He died on 5 April 1951 in Richmond, Surrey, England, UK.
- British character actor Felix Aylmer was educated at Oxford and later studied drama, making his stage debut at the London Coliseum in 1911. During World War I he served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and resumed his stage career after the war ended. He entered films in 1930 and stayed in them for the next 40 years, specializing in elderly, doddering characters (often clerics). Arguably his most memorable film appearance is that of the Archbishop of Canterbury in Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944). He is also well-known for his portrayal of Father Anselm in the television series Oh Brother! (1968).
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An air of almost smug disdain would hang over his characters like a grey cloud. Yet he could end up being a ray of sunshine with that cloud. Stage or screen, comedy or drama, playing butler or Lord Commander, Englishman Cecil Parker was born in 1897 and took an avid interest in performing following his discharge from World War I military service. Making his professional stage bow in 1922, he appeared in London's West End three years later and by the advent of sound could be found on film. Not surprisingly he fitted the support mold perfectly with his raspy, well-bred tones and stuffed-shirt personality, but by the late 40s he was actually toying with post-war character stardom with top-billed roles. Such films as Captain Boycott (1947), The Weaker Sex (1948) and The Amazing Mr. Beecham (1949), Tony Draws a Horse (1950) and I Believe in You (1952) demonstrated his talent and command. However, soon he started gaining in the stomach area and losing in the hair department, so he fell away again to the secondary ranks. His assisting men of power, position and influence are probably most recognized in the droll, classic films of Sir Alec Guiness, which include The Man in the White Suit (1951), The Detective (1954), The Ladykillers (1955). Parker could be humorously beleaguered or remotely pernicious and as the years wore on, found himself more and more in film comedy than anything else, often giving lift to such dry fare as Indiscreet (1958) and the farce-like slapstick of The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's (1960) and Carry on Jack (1964). Parker died in 1971.- Roland Culver was born on 21 August 1900 in Crouch End, Middlesex, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Thunderball (1965), Dead of Night (1945) and To Each His Own (1946). He was married to Nan Hopkins and Daphne Rye. He died on 1 March 1984 in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, UK.
- Scottish-born Finlay Currie was a former church organist and choirmaster, who made his stage debut at 20 years of age. It took him 34 more years before making his first film, but he worked steadily for another 30 years after that. Although he was a large, imposing figure, with a rich, deep voice and somewhat authoritarian demeanor, he was seldom cast in villainous parts. He received great acclaim for his role as Magwitch in Great Expectations (1946), and one of his best remembered roles was that of Balthazar in Ben-Hur (1959). He was also Shunderson, Cary Grant's devoted servant with a secret past in People Will Talk (1951). Later in his life he became a much respected antiques dealer, specializing in coins and precious metals (coinage). He died in England at age 90. While his biggest Academy Award-winning film, Ben-Hur (1959) was in its final four+ months of filming, he became a widower when his only wife, Maude Courtney, passed away.
- With his clipped delivery, aristocratic if somewhat ominous manner and suave, urbane demeanour, Eric Portman was so good at playing German and/or Nazi officers that many believed he actually was German, or at least Austrian. The fact is that he was British to the core, having been born, raised and educated in Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. He began his acting career on the stage in 1923, specialising in works by William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw. His film debut came in the Tod Slaughter melodrama Maria Marten, or the Murder in the Red Barn (1935) as, oddly enough, a Gypsy.
Portman became a favourite of renowned filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, leading to a role he is probably best remembered for - the determined Nazi commander of a German U-boat sunk off the coast of Canada in 49th Parallel (1941), who tries to lead his crew across Canada in order to get to the safety of the US, which was at the time not involved in the war. His versatility was obvious in a film he made the next year, One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942) as an RAF officer who finds himself stranded in Nazi-occupied Holland.
Portman kept busy over the next 25 years in a variety of roles, as villain and hero, in both thrillers and dramas. After making Deadfall (1968) he retired, apart from a few television projects over the next year or so. He died in 1969 of heart problems. - Actor, playwright and screenwriter Miles Malleson's list of credits reads like a history of British cinema in the first half of the 20th century. Born in Croydon in Surrey, he was educated at Brighton College in Sussex and Emmanuel College Cambridge. He had intended to become a schoolmaster but he opted instead for the stage and went into repertory theatre in Liverpool and then onto the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.
He wrote his first play in 1913 and, in contrast to the characters he often portrayed on screen, held socially progressive views which were often reflected in his work. His output included two plays about the First World War, "D Company" and "Black Eill", and one about the Tolpuddle Martyrs. He also worked as a screenwriter on two documentaries for Paul Rotha, Land of Promise (1946) and World of Plenty (1943).
Following the outbreak of The Great War in July 1914 Malleson enlisted in the British Army as a Private (No. 2227) in the 1/1st (City of London) Battalion (Royal Fusiliers). He served from 5th September 1914 until receiving a medical discharge in 1915, which included a period spent in Egypt. Malleson made no secret of his objection to the war as both a member of the Independent Labour Party and a supporter of the No-Conscription Fellowship.
His most prolific period as a screenwriter was in the 1930s and 1940s, initially on historical subjects like Nell Gwyn (1934), Rhodes (1936), and Victoria the Great (1937). In many of these films he also began appearing in supporting roles, and from the mid-'30s onward he found himself in increasing demand as an actor as well as a writer. Over the next 30 years he appeared in nearly 100 films, featuring in everything from Alfred Hitchcock thrillers and Ealing comedies to Hammer horrors.
Usually cast as a befuddled judge or a doddering old doctor, academic or other local eccentric, he first caught audiences' imagination as the hearse driver in the Ealing chiller compendium Dead of Night (1945), after which he began to get bigger and better parts. He was particularly memorable as the philosophical hangman in Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), Canon Chasuble in The Importance of Being Earnest (1952), Dr. McAdam in Folly to Be Wise (1952), the barrister Grimes in Brothers in Law (1957) and as Windrush Sr. in Private's Progress (1956) and I'm All Right Jack (1959).
Towards the end of his career he continued to appear in cameo roles in comedy films, and made several appearances in Hammer horror films including Horror of Dracula (1958) and The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), before failing eyesight forced him into retirement in his late 70s. - Actor
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Harcourt Williams was born on 30 March 1880 in Croydon, Surrey, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Roman Holiday (1953), Around the World in 80 Days (1956) and Hamlet (1948). He was married to Jean Sterling MacKinlay. He died on 13 December 1957 in London, England, UK.- John Laurie was a Scotsman who would play many character roles in his long career - a lot of Scotsmen to be sure - but an enthusiastic and skilled actor in nearly 120 screen roles. He was the son of a mill worker, and studied for a career in architecture which he indeed began. But with World War I he left his position to join the British army. After the war he set his sights in a different direction, training to become an actor by attending the Central School of Speech and Drama in London. His first stage play was in 1921. He honed his skills thereafter (from 1922 to 1939) principally as a Shakespearian actor at the Old Vic in London or at Stratford-upon-Avon - and later the Open Air in Regent's Park. But by 1930 he was giving time to films as well. His first movie was the Sean O'Casey play Juno and the Paycock (1929), one of Alfred Hitchcock's early sound efforts. With his craggy profile and arcing bulbous nose, and rather stern visage (though it could as quickly break into a broad smile), he was right for many a memorable character. Hitchcock made sure of that first off by calling on him again to play the dour, suspicious, and miserly farmer, John Crofter, in The 39 Steps (1935). Laurie became a good friend of another Shakespearean, Laurence Olivier, and the two, Olivier as a lead, were in Hungarian director/producer Paul Czinner's As You Like It (1936). The year 1937 was a busy one, with six films, the most important giving him one of his few leading roles. This was director/screen writer Michael Powell's intriguing The Edge of the World (1937), doubly important in that it was the film that sold Powell to producers like Alexander Korda. The film was shot on location on the remote Shetland isle of Foula, the furthest point of Britain. It dealt with the impact of the modern world on the lives of the inhabitants of an economically decaying island. Into 1938 and 1939 Laurie was involved in British experimental TV movies, that medium to be revisit later frequently. In 1939 he was taped by Alexander Korda for his classic film production of The Four Feathers (1939) in which Laurie, who could fit his Scots voice to any part, played the zealous Mahdi (the Khalifa). He is hardly to be recognized in character.
During the war Olivier was planning one of the important morale movies of World War II; his Henry V (1944), and Laurie was asked to play a memorable Capt. Jamie. Olivier also called on him for his two other Shakespeare ventures: Hamlet (1948) and Richard III (1955). As any good character actor, Laurie could play comedy as well and set a number of roles to that end into the 1940s. He and Roger Livesey were cast in Emeric Pressburger and Powell's first color film, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943). And Laurie was a jubilant John Campbell in the Powell/Pressburger wonderful and thoughtful comedy of more insular Scots life, I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) with a delightful young Wendy Hiller and worldly-wise Livesey.
Through the remainder of the decade and into the 1950s, Laurie's face showed up in a variety of films - with greater frequency as assorted Scotsmen-comedic and otherwise - and further down the credits list of supporting actors. He was familiar in the decade invasion to the UK of American co-productions, such as Disney's Treasure Island (1950) and Kidnapped (1960). And he even trod the uncertain path of a few sci-fi films - that shall remain nameless here. But he was certainly always busy - when all told - the actor's foremost blessing. Television drama and series gave him better opportunities for a veteran actor, beginning with a Henry V (1953) where he played the comic role of Pistol. Along with some BBC TV theater (more Shakespeare and some American playhouse as well) and sporadic serials, he had a stint on the long-running BBC children's reading program "Jackanory". And he is probably best remembered as the dour James Frazer on the popular "Dad's Army" series (1968-1977). But one of his last and most touching performance was simply being his good-natured self - 80 years old but still a vibrant man with his Scots burr - when he accompanied Powell back to dramatically isolated Foula for the director's short documentary Return to the Edge of the World (1978) (included with the 2003 DVD release of the 1937 movie). There was a bit of staging by Powell. But Laurie's animated face was a picture of profound humanity, as - with a shade of theatrics when appropriate - he remembered the shoot and with sincere joy renewed acquaintances with the inhabitants, as if he himself had returned once more to his native heath. A bonnie old actor indeed! - Actor
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A stage actor from 1925, Esmond made his first film appearance in 77 Park Lane (1931) for Michael Powell for whom he eventually made 11 films.
Esmond served in the Royal Navy during WWII and lost one eye and was almost totally blinded in the other during an engagement against The Bismarck. This didn't stop him later portraying a Royal Naval officer in Sink the Bismarck! (1960).- Godfrey Seymour Tearle was born in 1884, the son of British actor/manager George (Osmond) Tearle and American actress Marianne Conway (her second marriage). His father and uncle were first-generation acting Tearles, and his mother also came from a family of actors. It seems that Godfrey's destiny was set at birth. The Tearles' family's origins lay rooted in the rural areas of Bedfordshire. His grandfather was a soldier who served in the Crimean War. Godfrey made his stage debut at age nine as young Prince Richard, Duke of York, in his father's production of "Richard III." He subsequently attended Carlisle Grammar School in Carlisle, England, but continued acting in his father's company into his teen years. His older half-brother, Frederick (Levy), was also a successful actor and later billed himself as Conway Tearle and earned distinction as a suave silent-era matinée idol. In 1908 Godfrey made his film debut in a shortened version of Romeo and Juliet (1908), at the Lyceum Theatre, which co-starred then-wife actress Mary Malone. Building up his stage reputation in the classics, he became a Shakespearean player of note with sterling portrayals of "Othello", "Macbeth" and "Henry V", among others. Active service in the Royal Field Artillery in 1915 temporarily interrupted his budding theater career for nearly four years. He returned to the footlights, but also attempted to earn a reputation in silents. Although he was less successful, Godfrey's mellifluous voice proved ideal for sound and he made a mild go of it with occasional movie forays in the 1930s and 1940s. He distinguished himself as patrician gents in both character leads and supports. He made a particular impression in The 39 Steps (1935), Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller, in which he played the professor (aka menacing agent) minus a finger; The Beginning or the End (1947) as President Franklin D. Roosevelt; Crash of Silence (1952), a four-tissue tearjerker, as the grandfather of a deaf child; and the charming comedy The Titfield Thunderbolt (1953) as a genial bishop, which was released the year of his death. On the personal front, he and actress Malone were divorced after 20 years of marriage, and Godfrey married much-younger starlet Stella Freeman in 1932. Tragically she died aged 26 in May 1936 from pneumonia, just a few months after the suicide of his actor/brother Malcolm Tearle. A third marriage failed for but he managed to enjoy the last few years of his life in the company of Stratford stage actress Jill Bennett. He was knighted in 1951 and died two years later in London, following a lengthy illness, at age 68.
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Hugh Williams was a successful actor and dramatist. He collaborated with his second wife Margaret Vyner on several plays, such as "The Grass is Greener". His sons include the actor Simon Williams and the poet Hugo Williams, his grandchildren include the actors Tam Williams, Amy Williams and Kate Dunn and great-granddaughter is Lily Dizdar. His daughter Polly Williams, who died in 2004, was married to the actor Nigel Havers.- Hugh Burden was a distinguished British actor and playwright. He was born in Colombo (then Ceylon), the son of a colonial official. He was sent to England at the age of ten to further his education. At Beaumont College, he studied history, French and music, becoming proficient on the piano. He trained for acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his theatrical debut in 1933. He served in the British Army in India from 1939, but was invalided out two years later.
He appeared in films including classics such as One of Our Aircraft Is Missing (1942), The Way Ahead (1944) and Malta Story (1953), but he would become most prolific on television. He starred as J.G. Reeder in The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder (1969) for Thames Television, based on the short stories by the English crime writer Edgar Wallace. He is also remembered by cult television fans for his performance as the sinister alien Channing, who plots to take over the world with killer shop window dummies called Autons, in Jon Pertwee's Doctor Who (1963) debut Spearhead from Space: Episode 1 (1970). - Edward Chapman was born on 13 October 1901 in Harrogate, Yorkshire [now North Yorkshire], England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Juno and the Paycock (1929), Murder! (1930) and A Stitch in Time (1963). He was married to Prudence Nesbitt and Constance Willis Spark. He died on 9 August 1977 in Brighton, East Sussex, England, UK.
- Richard Leech was born on 24 November 1922 in Dublin, Ireland. He was an actor, known for A Night to Remember (1958), Gandhi (1982) and The Good Companions (1957). He was married to Diane Margaret McClelland and Helen Hyslop Uttley. He died on 24 March 2004 in London, England, UK.
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Reginald Beckwith was born on 2 November 1908 in York, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Thunderball (1965), Curse of the Demon (1957) and Sword of Lancelot (1963). He died on 26 June 1965 in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire, England, UK.- Actor
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A balding, bespectacled, bird-like British comic actor, Richard Wattis was an invaluable asset to any UK comedy film or TV programme for nearly thirty years. Much associated with the Eric Sykes TV series for the latter part of his career. He was often seen in officious roles, such as snooty shop managers, secretaries and policemen. He was working right up to his sudden death from a heart attack in 1975.- Walter Fitzgerald was born on 18 May 1896 in Devonport, Devon, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Fallen Idol (1948), Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959) and Treasure Island (1950). He was married to Angela Kirk and Rosalie Constance Gray. He died on 20 December 1976 in Hammersmith, London, England, UK.
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Veddy, veddy British stage and film actor Basil Radford (once dubbed "The Eternal Englishman") would actually become best remembered for his droll work in a couple of US films. Specializing in playing stuffy, mustachioed, well bred gents, he was a delightful presence in light, sophisticated comedies and breezy whodunnits.
He was born Arthur Basil Radford in Chester, England on June 25, 1897. He entered military service in 1915 and would serve as a commissioned officer for the British Army during World War I. He suffered a facial wound in the trenches that would later be obscured by clever camerawork and makeup over the years. Following military duty in 1918, he pursued an acting career and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Making his stage debut in 1924 with "Collusion." he subsequently appeared in such shows as "The Ghost Train," "The Love Pirate," "Night Must Fall," "Spring Tide," "Blind Goddess," "The White Falcon" and "A Man's House." By 1929, Radford was adding film work to his acting resume with his debut in Ain't It the Truth (1929). He subsequently found upper-class support parts in both comedies and dramas -- Seven Days Leave (1930) starring a young Gary Cooper, Leave It to Smith (1933) Foreign Affaires (1935), Broken Blossoms (1936), Dishonour Bright (1936), When Thief Meets Thief (1937) with Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and Alfred Hitchcock's murder mystery Young and Innocent (1937).
Films became an even stronger focus when Hitchcock rehired Radford and memorably teamed him with actor Naunton Wayne. In one of his early cinematic masterpieces The Lady Vanishes (1938), the dry twosome hilariously portrayed a pair of cricket enthusiasts (Charters and Caldicott) who seem much more interested in reading and commenting on their favorite sport than they are concerned with the alarming number of bodies piling up aboard their train. They clicked so well with audiences in this classic whodunnit that they were asked to successfully reprise their roles in two more films: Night Train to Munich (1940) and Crook's Tour (1940) (in the latter the pair were top billed). Radford and Wayne would pair up again in seven more film outings: Millions Like Us (1943), Dead of Night (1945), Quartet (1948), Passport to Pimlico (1949), It's Not Cricket (1949) and Stop Press Girl (1949). They also showed up together in wartime shorts and radio programs.
Appearances sans Mr. Wayne include the films Dead of Night (1945), Johnny in the Clouds (1945), The Captive Heart (1946), The Winslow Boy (1948) and the comedy Whisky Galore! (1949), the last finding himself top billed. Following two top-billed character parts as a pompous boss in the working class comedy Chance of a Lifetime (1950) and the major in the racehorse yarn The Galloping Major (1951), the latter which he also co-wrote, Radford's health went into a severe decline and, by the summer of 1951, was forced to leave the screen. On the verge of a modest return in 1952, he suddenly collapsed from a heart attack on the set of the radio adventure "Rogues' Gallery" (which happened to pair him again with Naunton Wayne. He was taken to a London hospital where he died on October 20, 1952.
Only 55, a marvelous character career was lost much too soon. Long married (from 1926) to Shirley Deuchars, the couple had one son.- Actor
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This English actor was born of humble, working class beginnings and became well-known for playing the same kind of blokes on both film and TV. Born William Rowbotham, he was the son of a tram driver and laundress. He knew early on that entertaining was the life for him. He worked in odd jobs as a printer's apprentice and band vocalist to make do and, when he became of legal age, started playing drums in London nightclubs and toured music halls with his own cabaret act to pay for acting classes. He entertained at Butlin's holiday camps and performed in repertory, joining the Unity Theatre where he attained respect as a stage producer. His career was interrupted by military service with the Royal Army Ordinance Corps and was injured in an explosion during battle training course.
Returning to acting, he was taken to post-war films after notice in a play. He started making a blue-collar character name for himself in such films as Johnny in the Clouds (1945), Secret Flight (1946), When the Bough Breaks (1947), Maniacs on Wheels (1949), The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952), The Square Ring (1953) and PT Raiders (1955). He continued to perform in the theatre limelight and peaked in roles with Katharine Hepburn in "As You Like It" in 1950, and with "The Threepenny Opera" and "The Mikado", which made sturdy use of his musical talents. A writer at heart, he penned songs, musicals and plays over the years. Partnered with Mike Sammes, he wrote songs recorded by Pat Boone, Harry Secombe, Engelbert Humperdinck, and Sir Cliff Richard, who made a hit of his 1980 song "Marianne". In the 60s, he produced the stage musical, "The Matchgirl", and focused heavily on film slapstick with the "Carry On" series, adding also to the lowbrow fun found in the comedy On the Fiddle (1961). TV stardom and a sense of renewed career came late after landing the role of "Compo" in the BBC's Last of the Summer Wine (1973) series in 1973, his scruffy, mischievous charm endearing audiences for decades.
Bill was awarded the MBE in 1976 for his steadfast work for the National Association of Boys Clubs and for his role as chairman of the Performing Arts Advising Panel. He was also awarded an honorary degree by Bradford University in 1998. For the rest of his life, Bill would be identified with the lovable scamp "Compo", complete with woolly hat and threadbare jacket.
Most fittingly, when he died of pancreatic cancer in 1999, he asked to be buried in the Yorkshire village of Holmfirth, where the TV series was filmed and the townspeople had taken him close to their hearts. Married twice, his actor/son Tom Owen joined the "Last of the Summer Wine" series in 2000.- Actor
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The son of a police superintendent in India, the character actor James Hayter was educated in Scotland, where he was urged into acting by his headmaster. After one year (1924-5) at the Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts in London, he performed in repertory theater, eventually appearing in The West End in such plays as "1066 and All That" and "French Without Tears." He made his film debut in 1936 and continued in films until World War II, when he served in the Royal Armoured Corps. After the war, he established an active screen career, excelling at various sorts of character roles, especially in comedy. Characteristic roles include Friar Tuck in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) and A Challenge for Robin Hood (1967), The Pickwick Papers (1952), and David Copperfield (1970).- Actor
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This droll, urbane, dry-witted gent was born Nigel Dennis Patrick Wemyss-Gorman in London on May 2, 1912. Coming from a family of actors, his parents were actors Charles Wemyss and Dorothy Turner.
Nigel made his stage debut in the 1932 play "The Life Machine" and continued on the stock and repertory stage with "Night of the Garter" (1933), "Daddy Long Legs" (1933), "Half a Crown" (1934), "Ringmaster" (1935), "Roulette (1935), "The Lady of La Paz" (1936), Mademoiselle (1936), "Tony Draws a Horse" (1939) and "Children to Bless You." (1939). During that period, he had a strong hit with the play "George and Margaret" (1937) at the Wyndham's Theatre. These plays established his reputation in stylish plays.
The actor turned to films with an appearance in the crime whodunnit Mrs. Pym of Scotland Yard (1940) starring veteran Mary Clare as the famed female detective. WWII interrupted his career, however, and he entered military duty, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel in the infantry. He revived his career on the stage following his war service with a number of productions including "Tomorrow's Child" (1946), "Fools Rush In" (1947), "These Mortals" (as Zeus) (1948) and "Champagne for Delilah" (1949).
Nigel also regained his footing in post-war films with featured roles in Spring in Park Lane (1948) and Uneasy Terms (1948). He then moved into top supports as doubting debonairs and high ranking officials while bolstering such stars as Carole Landis in the crime drama The Silk Noose (1948); John Mills in the war film Operation Disaster (1950); James Mason and Ava Gardner in the drama Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951); Michael Redgrave in The Browning Version (1951) and Ralph Richardson in The Sound Barrier (1952). He also played several leads in such films as The Jack of Diamonds (1949), Young Wives' Tale (1951), The Passionate Sentry (1952), Forbidden Cargo (1954), How to Murder a Rich Uncle (1957) (also directed), All for Mary (1955), Sapphire (1959) and Johnny Nobody (1961).
Never abandoning the theatre, Nigel played the title role in "The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1955) and starred in "The Egg" (1957). He also directed the plays "Not in the Book" (1958), Settled Out of Court" (1960), The Geese Are Getting Fat" (1960) and "Past Imperfect" (1964). Of special interest, he directed and starred in well-received productions of "The Pleasure of His Company" (1959) and "Present Laughter" (1965).
On TV, Nigel starred in the British series Zero One (1962), which was briefly syndicated in the U.S. He occasionally found some support movie roles in the 1960's and 1970's with The League of Gentlemen (1960), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), Battle of Britain (1969), The Virgin Soldiers (1969), The Executioner (1970), The Great Waltz (1972) and The MacKintosh Man (1973). In later years he would be spotted in the plays "Blithe Spirit," "A Suite in Two Keys," "Night Must Fall" and "Avanti!"
Long married (from 1951) to Irish-born actress Beatrice Campbell, who appeared with him in the film dramas Silent Dust (1949) and Wicked Wife (1953). She passed away in 1979 and Nigel joined her a couple of years later in London of lung cancer on September 21, 1981 .- Norman Bird was born on 30 October 1924 in Coalville, Leicestershire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Lord of the Rings (1978), The League of Gentlemen (1960) and Maniac (1963). He was married to Nona Blair. He died on 22 April 2005 in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England, UK.
- Duncan Lamont began his career in the 1940's in Waterfront Women (1950) and Quentin Durward (1955) then went to Hollywood for Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). Returning to Britain he went into what he described as one of his happiest roles opposite Margaret Rutherford in Murder at the Gallop (1963). He described himself as a 'heavy with a capacity for light villainy' as he was never really a bad villain. When the film is nearly over there's usually justice to contend with, While sometimes he's was on the right side of the law never the less he always seems to end up dead or defeated. Television work took him to America for appearances in such as The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp (1955), Hawaiian Eye (1959), and The Alaskans (1959), while British credits included such as Z Cars (1962), Danger Man (1960), and Dixon of Dock Green (1955).
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Some of Hordern's finest work was not in films or television but on radio: His performance as Gandalf in the BBC's radio adaptation of The Lord of the Rings was arguably the definitive portrayal of that character (contrast Hordern's Gandalf with that of Ian McKellen in the 3-part film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings directed by Peter Jackson).- Actor
- Writer
Harry Towb was a Northern Ireland-born character actor on stage and in films and television. He was born in Larne, County Antrim, to Jewish parents. His father was a Russian emigrant. Harry Towb once claimed he was the only Jew ever born in Larne. He grew up in Belfast, making his stage debut at the Guildhall Theatre in Londonderry in 1946.
Towb began acting in England in the 1950s. Over the years he was affiliated with the National Theatre, the Abbey and Gate Theatres in Dublin, and with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). He was also a prolific performer on British television in a wide variety of roles. He appeared twice in Doctor Who (1963). His second appearance, in Terror of the Autons: Episode Two (1971), features one of the cult series' scariest scenes in which his character is suffocated by a plastic chair. In films, he often appeared as priests or law enforcement officers.
Towb died of cancer three days before his 84th birthday. He was survived by his wife, actress Diana Hoddinott, children Emily, Daniel and Joshua, and three granddaughters.- Actor
- Editorial Department
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Harry Fowler was born on 10 December 1926 in Lambeth, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Pickwick Papers (1952), Hue and Cry (1947) and Went the Day Well? (1942). He was married to Catherine Palmer and Joan Dowling. He died on 4 January 2012 in London, England, UK.- Walter Gotell was born on 15 March 1924 in Bonn, Germany. He was an actor, known for Moonraker (1979), The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and A View to a Kill (1985). He was married to Celeste F. Mitchell and Yvonne Hills. He died on 5 May 1997 in London, England, UK.
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Born in Limerick on July 27, 1913, versatile Irish actor Liam Redmond was one of four children (the others were Thomas, Mary and Eileen), born to Thomas, a master carpenter who also taught woodworking, and Eileen Redmond, a homemaker. He received his early education at the Christian Brothers junior and secondary schools in Dublin. Upon completing secondary school, he attended UCD (University College, Dublin -- a constituent college of the National University of Ireland (NUI) -- and originally studied medicine before shifting his career focus to the arts. He met his wife Barbara MacDonagh there while he was the Director of the Dramatic Society and she was the Secretary. They had four children.
It was William Butler Yeats, the renowned Irish poet, dramatist, and literary figure who saw one Liam's productions at the college and saw a bright promise in him, inviting the young hopeful to join the Abbey Theatre in 1935 as a guest producer. This completely ended any serious designs to return to medicine. Yeates went on to write his play "Death of Cuchullain" particularly for Liam. Wife Barbara's brother was Donagh MacDonagh, who was not only a judge, but a playwright, poet and author.
Liam made his Abbey Theatre acting debut that same year in Sean O'Casey's "The Silver Tassie." In 1939, he made his first stage appearance in New York in "The White Steed." He left America at the outbreak of WWII and played regularly on the London stage, returning from time to time to the Abbey for a season or performance. Some of his more sterling performances over time included "The Playboy of the Western World" (in the course of his career he played every male role in "Playboy"), "Juno and the Paycock", "The Square Ring," "The Doctor's Dilemma," "Loot" and "The Island".
The actor joined the Dublin Verse-Speaking Society and occasionally read poetry on radio. Redmond went back to Broadway in the 50s to play Canon McCooey in "The Wayward Saint" and won the George Jean Nathan Award for his performance.
Liam's easygoing nature and erudite presence proved quite suitable for film and TV character parts, and he wound up a regular presence on such popular British TV series fare as "Z Cars" and "The Avengers." Flavorful roles in films include I See a Dark Stranger (1946), Captain Boycott (1947), High Treason (1951), The Cruel Sea (1953), The Playboy of the Western World (1962), one of Elvis Presley's better vehicles Kid Galahad (1962), The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964), Tobruk (1967) and his last Barry Lyndon (1975). Walt Disney himself personally requested Liam for a couple of Disney projects, including The Adventures of Bullwhip Griffin (1967). Over the years he specialized in playing captains, priests, police inspectors and professors.
In later years Liam developed a special interest and talent for cooking. He eventually retired to a quiet life in Dublin and, following a decade of declining health, died at age 76 in his beloved Dublin on October 28, 1989. He was predeceased by wife Barbara.- John made his acting debut at the Theatre Royal, Bournemouth. After spending a year in various reps. including Hastings, Watford and Eastbourne, he was conscripted into the Devon Yeomanry during the war and served in Italy and Sicily, but contracted hepatitis. He then became a member of the Army Bureau For Current Affairs - Play Unit, touring England, France and Germany. He then spent many years in theatre, before branching out into films and starring alongside David Niven and John Mills. He has also appeared in many TV roles.
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John Welsh was born on 7 November 1914 in Wexford, Ireland. He was an actor and production manager, known for Krull (1983), To Serve Them All My Days (1980) and Tales from Soho (1956). He died on 21 April 1985 in Richmond, London, England, UK.- Tall, serious-looking British character actor, formerly a graduate of Edinburgh Academy and Sandhurst. He was a member of the Black Watch, but resigned his commission in 1932 to join the chorus of the Drury Lane Theatre as a specialty dancer. He later turned to films, usually acting in small supporting roles in which he invariably projected an air of confidence and authority. He rejoined the British Army in 1939 for wartime service. His one noteworthy screen success after 1945 was as the titular star of Patrol Car (1954), playing real-life detective Robert Fabian. In 1963, upon the death of his brother, Sir Alexander Hay Seton, he became the eleventh Baronet of Abercorn. Along with other actors, Bruce Seton was one of the founder members of the Lord's Taverners in 1950, Britain's premier youth cricket and disability sports charity association.
- The younger brother of matinee idol Donald Houston attended elementary school in Wales but was largely self-educated with a love of sports and a strong leaning towards the arts and humanities. Glyn's working life began on his grandmother's milk round in Tonypandy. After leaving the Rhondda Valley he held down a variety of short-lived jobs and war-time appointments: with the Bristol Aeroplane Company, as a gunner with the Fleet Air Arm, a labourer on the docks at Cardiff and with the Military Police. Eventually posted to Singapore, Glyn served with the Royal Signals Regiment where his comedic potential was first recognised. Having joined the Entertainments National Service Association (and being promoted to Acting Sergeant) he put together a variety show for serving troops which toured India.
Following demobilisation at war's end, brother Donald helped him secure a position as assistant stage manager with the Guildford Repertory Theatre. On-the-job training in touring plays was to provide the foundation for a screen career which began when the director Basil Dearden created a part specifically for him in the Ealing production of The Blue Lamp (1950). Over the next six years, Glyn would appear regularly in films playing assorted working class types, sailors and soldiers (frequently Cockneys) in dramas with a crime, naval or military theme. These included classic productions like The Clouded Yellow (1950), The Cruel Sea (1953), Turn the Key Softly (1953) (famously, as Joan Collins's first onscreen lover) and The One That Got Away (1957). Many were small parts or even cameos, but occasional leads eventually followed. In Solo for Sparrow (1962), Glyn enjoyed a rare starring turn as a Scotland Yard Inspector turned private eye who brings down a gang of villains (one of them a young Michael Caine). He had a further leading role as yet another policeman in Emergency (1962), surfaced in a couple of Hammer horrors and played the comic foil in four Norman Wisdom farces, beginning with A Stitch in Time (1963). From 1958 Glyn also appeared in a staple of TV shows, live broadcasts, anthologies, soap operas and classic adaptations (notably, Lord Peter Wimsey's impeccable manservant Mervyn Bunter in Clouds of Witness (1972)) and Rosa Bud's guardian Grewgious in The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1993) .
His most consistent stock-in-trade characters continued to be serious professionals, generally in uniformed garb as officers (Colonel Wolsey in Doctor Who (1963) "The Awakening"), or, most frequently, police inspectors and superintendents (Outbreak of Murder (1962), Gideon C.I.D. (1964), Z Cars (1962), Softly Softly (1966)). Though he maintained a prolific career on stage in plays by Chekov, Shaw, Miller and others, his one self-confessed regret was not having become a leading light on the Shakespearean stage. Glyn Houston became recipient of a Bafta Cymru special award in 2008 for outstanding contribution to film and television. His autobiography, "Glyn Houston, A Black and White Actor", appeared the following year. - Actor
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A veritable everyman of stage and screen, both big and small, but relatively unfamiliar to American audiences, Michael Craig is of Scots heritage, born in India to a father on military assignment. When he was three, the family returned to England, but by his eleventh year, they moved on to Canada - where he undoubtedly acquired his North American accent. He left school for the Merchant Navy at 16, but finally returned to England and the lure of the theater. By 1947, he debuted on stage and, in 1953, Sir Peter Hall gave him his first lead stage role. In the meantime, he was trying his hand at extra work and had speaking roles by 1954. This eventually led to discovery by Rank Films and a list of lead movie roles into the early 1960s. When his 7-year contract with that company expired, he was optioned by Columbia Pictures and his Hollywood career commenced. Yet his American work is perhaps only modestly remembered in two films, ironically co-American productions with the UK, Mysterious Island (1961), and Australia, the Disney TV installment, Ride a Wild Pony (1975).
By the mid-1970s, Craig's TV and film work was heavily concentrated in Australia (where he still resides) and composed a depth or roles, both comedic and dramatic, that has included memorable and solid character pieces as he has matured in age. As a screen writer, he has written for and created several British TV series. And he has never been far from the stage, remaining a familiar face in both London and New York theater.- Actor
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To say that Terence Alexander, the distinguished British thespian, was hyperactive is a statement that borders on the understatement! Judge for yourself : born in 1923, following a short period when he considered becoming a priest, Alexander exercised the acting profession for six full decades and he might have beaten Queen Victoria's record, had not Parkinson's disease (an illness he finally died of at 86) taken its toll. In 1939, at age 16, he was already in the theater, as the first assistant manager of The White Rose Players Company at the Harrogate Opera House. It did not take more than a few months before he made his acting debut on the aforementioned scene, with the first role in J.B. Priestley's "The Good Companions". And not only would he appear in dozens of plays (signed Jean Anouilh, Ray Cooney, T.S. Eliot, Alan Bennett, Margaret Kennedy, and many others) but he would appear in no fewer than... 340 films, TV movies and series episodes! And that is without counting his career as a voice talent on the radio, as a film and a trailer narrator. Of course, appearing in so many plays and filmed works means that, except on the boards, he was not always the lead. He even hardly ever was. But whether in a supporting role or even a bit part, Terence Alexander managed to establish himself as a well-mannered upper class type with suave manners, although quite often on the wrong side of the law (he was excellent as one of the seven retired army officers turned bank robbers in Basil Dearden's quite enjoyable The League of Gentlemen (1960)). But he could also be an effective foil to comics like Norman Wisdom, Benny Hill and Eric Morecambe & Ernie Wise. On TV, Terence Alexander was everywhere, in many quality TV films like "Autumn Crocus" (1952), "The White Carnation" (1956), "A Room in Town" (1970), "Frankenstein" (1984) and in more than one TV show. But he was first and foremost in an impressive number of series : these included Maigret (1959) (2 episodes, 1962-63), cult classics such as The Avengers (1961) (3 episodes, 1965-69), The New Avengers (1976) (1 episode, 1977), Man in a Suitcase (1967) (1 episode, 1968), The Champions (1968) (1 episode, 1969), The Persuaders! (1971) (1 episode, 1971) and Doctor Who (1963) (2 episodes, 1985), prestigious classic serials such as Nicholas Nickleby (1968) (5 episodes, 1968), The Forsyte Saga (1967) (9 episodes, 1967) and The Pallisers (1974) (3 episodes, 1974), and this is only a sample of all the series the prolific actor appeared in. With such a hectic activity, Terence Alexander of course gained recognition both from his peers and from the public but fame did not come to him before 1981 when he accepted (rather reluctantly by his own admission) the role of Charlie Hungerford in the detective series "Bergerac". As the power broker and (disapproving) former father-in-law of detective Jim Bergerac, played by John Nettles, he appeared in 85 of its 86 episodes. Shown in 35 countries, the series allowed Alexander to be known (and cherished) not only by an international audience but by the younger generation too. More than a swan song for this exquisite actor. When he retired in 1999 he must have have felt satisfied with his professional life.- Actor
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London-born David Farrar dropped out of school at 14 and became a writer for the Morning Advertiser newspaper; but it wasn't long before he decided to change careers and become an actor. He started out on the stage in 1932, and five years later made his film debut. Appearing at first in low-budget thrillers, such as Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror (1938),he worked his way up to more prestigious projects, such as Ealing's Went the Day Well? (1942). Farrar hit his stride in a series of films for renowned directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, most notably the classic Black Narcissus (1947).
Farrar's brooding good looks and deep, rich baritone won him legions of female fans in the US and Europe, and soon Hollywood came a-calling. He journeyed to Universal as a contract player, but the studio put him in a succession of second-tier action pictures and costume dramas as a villain. He returned to England somewhat embittered by his Hollywood experiences and determined to do better in his own country's film industry, but he couldn't regain the momentum he had before he left for Hollywood. After a small role as King Xerxes of Persia in the Greek-shot The 300 Spartans (1962), he left film acting and turned to television. When his wife died in 1976 he retired from acting altogether, and with his daughter Barbara moved to the Natal coast in South Africa, where he passed away in 1995 at age 87.- Actor
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Cyril James Cusack was born in Durban, Natal, South Africa, to Alice Violet (Cole), a Cockney English actress and chorus girl, and James Walter Cusack, an Irish mounted policeman in Natal. He was brought up in Ireland. He was a child star on the Irish stage, appearing first at the age of 7. He toured Ireland with his own theater company. Although he made some very telling film appearances, his small stature kept him from the classic roles.
With his wife, Irish-born actress Maureen Cusack (née Mary Margaret Kiely), he is the father of actress Sinéad Cusack and the grandfather of actor Max Irons.- Leo Genn was the son of a successful jewelry merchant Woolfe (William) Genn and his wife Rachel Asserson. He attended the City of London School as a youth and went on to study law at Cambridge. He received his law degree as a qualified barrister (which in English law tradition is a lawyer who is a specialist in law and who appears in court as representative of a client, whereas a solicitor is also a lawyer but further defined as an attorney who deals directly with the client, writing all case-related briefs and hiring a barrister for court appearance - there is no such division in the USA). He began practice in 1928, however law was not his only interest. Acting caught his eye, and about 1930 he made the acquaintance of actor/manager Leon M. Lion, who needed an actor and a legal advisor. Genn fitted both and was hired and later that year made his stage debut. It was certainly of practical value that he continued offering legal counsel into the 1930s to augment the small income of a budding stage performer learning his craft. In 1933 he met and married Marguerite van Praag, a casting director at Ealing Studios.
His first screen role was as Shakespeare's Shylock in the UK production The Immortal Gentleman (1935). It mortised nicely between his two year (1934-36) period of Shakespearean apprenticeship as a member of the Old Vic Company where he appeared in many productions of Shakespeare. Genn had a very pleasant neutral British accent that could fit anywhere. And his voice was wonderfully smooth and yet authoritative, likened to "black velvet", that fit like a glove to his refined manner. Douglas Fairbanks Jr.., in London for one of his many UK starring vehicles, hired Genn as a technical advisor on the law for Accused (1936) and received a bit role - not for his legal advice - but for a "splendid voice and presence". But the legal side of his character stuck to him as he was in the process of dropping the law for acting full time. He spent 1937 playing film prosecutors and defending attorneys - not something he expected. Things picked up the next year - though still wading through some crime dramas - when he nabbed a small Indian character role in The Drum (1938), the ambitious adventure yarn by producer Alexander Korda. And he was the prince dance partner to Wendy Hiller in Pygmalion (1938) - uncredited - as was a young Anthony Quayle. Obviously, small featured extra roles allowed time for more ambitious outings. He starred in the stage hit "The Flashing Stream" also in 1938. It received the nod from Broadway, and Genn made his American debut in early 1939 in the play's successful run in New York.
Though still tagged for law officialdom in several films, Genn moved on to more hearty supporting roles in 1940 with war looming. He joined the Royal Artillery and received a rank of Lieutenant Colonel in 1943. In that year he was already wanted for film's war effort agenda as movie narrator. In 1944 he was given leave for two flag-waver movies - the second a most unusual and significant cinematic event. For Genn, it was a small part, but it was part of a glorious celebration of England and English history during the crisis of World War II - the Henry V of Laurence Olivier. Genn was the Constable of France, and though the lines were few, Shakespeare infused them with a sardonic wink that Genn delivered perfectly in an understated style that became one of his hallmarks. This part brought him to notice as a film actor, but he did not entertain its fruits until later 1946, for with the end of the war Genn, who had been awarded the French Croix de Guerre in 1945, went back to law counseling. He volunteered his legal knowledge to the British army unit involved in the investigation and prosecution of Nazi war crimes perpetrated at the Belsen concentration camp near Luneburg, Germany. And in the subsequent tribunals, Genn served as assistant prosecutor.
He was back in film in 1946, but more so he was being courted by Broadway to return - which he did in that crowded year with one of his best stage roles in the Lillian Hellman classic "Another Part of the Forest". Hollywood waited in the wings to grab him for the Eugene O'Neill update Mourning Becomes Electra (1947) of the ancient Greek tragedy triangle "Orestaia". It was not Genn's American film debut, for he had appeared in the UK/US crime drama The Girl in the News (1940) - as - what else - a prosecuting counsel - a barrister. He was competing with the American debut of Michael Redgrave in the O'Neill adaptation (3 hours, pared to about 2 hours for general release). The film was a great piece of dialog display but a disaster at the box office. But the chemistry of Genn with Rosalind Russell was such that they were marketed together again the next year in another American film, The Velvet Touch (1948), more whodunit but with snappy lines. Subsequently Genn was about equally in demand for film and stage on both sides of the Atlantic.
His film roles on into the 1950s were somewhat uneven, but Genn was always to form - the calm, understated but in control male lead or supporting character, whether war adventure or the inevitable crime drama - many a steady military officer and understanding professional - with a bit of comedy and a few shady characters thrown in.
Perhaps his best known American film role was as the sardonic Gaius Petronius Arbiter in Quo Vadis (1951). Genn's generous part as the ancient Roman satirist was filled with double meaning quips and understated sarcasm that Genn delivered with his poker face charm and subtle sidelong glances. He is so good that the audience hangs on his next sub-level dig with anticipation that partially eclipses the first rate histrionics of Peter Ustinov as a tongue-in-cheek deranged Nero. The level of Genn's performance was recognized with a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. The next year he was more than just a straight-laced William Bradford of American colonial history fame in Plymouth Adventure (1952), a much maligned American film that was, in fact, a realistic portrayal of the trials and tribulations of the Pilgrims (they were not all religious dissenters, not the dour, black and white Puritans who were later arrivals). Having to compete with a cantankerous, perhaps too hammy Spencer Tracy as the ship's captain, Genn's understated intensity brings off a compassionate portrayal.
Genn helped grace some of the most ambitious films of the later 1950s and into the 1960s: Moby Dick (1956), The Longest Day (1962), and 55 Days at Peking (1963). He embraced TV playhouse, both American and British programs, and US/UK episodic series through the period, as well as more outings on Broadway. He made six appearances on the Great White Way - the last in a short run of "The Only Game in Town" in mid 1968. All along Genn's voice had found welcoming slots in narration. Beside films, he was the voice of the royal coronation programs of 1937 and 1953. And he always kept a foot in his first love, British theater; he was a governor of London's The Mermaid Theatre. - Known primarily in Britain for his many "matinée idol" roles during the 1950s, Anthony Steel is perhaps best remembered in Hollywood and elsewhere as the erstwhile husband of Anita Ekberg.
His career never really took off in Hollywood; at one point during his marriage to Ms. Ekberg, he was referred to as "Mr. Ekberg" - a slight that reflected his success (or lack of it) in movies following the eventual breakup of the marriage.
Steel was born in London and was the son of an Indian army officer. He was educated at Cambridge and in World War II served as a Major in the Grenadier Guards Parachute Regiment and for a time served in the infant Special Air Service (S.A.S.) leaving in 1948.
It wasn't until after the war he decided to pursue acting, starring in such adventure-charged films as Malta Story (1953) for the J. Arthur Rank studio. His career was at its pinnacle and he was lauded as one of Britain's biggest movie stars when he married Ekberg in 1956 and set out with her to break into Hollywood pictures. Finding Hollywood unsatisfactory and even hostile, he turned primarily to making some not-so-memorable European films in the '70s and '80s - including The Story of O (1975) (The Story of O)- and some guest spots on British TV.
He died on March 21, 2001, in Northwood, Middlesex, England. - Robert Brown was born on 23 July 1921 in Swanage, Dorset, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A View to a Kill (1985), Octopussy (1983) and Licence to Kill (1989). He was married to Rita Becker. He died on 11 November 2003 in Swanage, Dorset, England, UK.
- Noel Willman was born on 4 August 1918 in Londonderry, Ireland. He was an actor, known for Doctor Zhivago (1965), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) and Beau Brummell (1954). He died on 24 December 1988 in New York City, New York, USA.
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Manly actor Lee Patterson will always be remembered by American audiences as the hunky detective alongside equally hunky detectives Van Williams and Troy Donahue on Surfside 6 (1960) from the early 1960s. But, prior to that, he had a solid second-string career in British films playing Americanized parts.
Born in British Columbia, he went to a college in Ontario before crossing the ocean and settling in England. A former stage manager and theatre publicist in his salad days, he was a rock-solid presence in such "B" films as Terror Street (1953) (aka Terror Street), The Good Die Young (1954), Reach for the Sky (1956), The Mailbag Robbery (1957) (aka The Mailbag Robbery) and Jack the Ripper (1959). The monumental success of the private eye series 77 Sunset Strip (1958) and the hair-combing Edd Byrnes "Kookie" craze instigated a number of imitations with Surfside 6 (1960) being just one of them. It lasted a rather short two seasons but it did establish Lee here in America. As good looking as the exotic locales behind him on the show, his own good looks carried him much further, going on to star in a number of guest spots and earning a slew of soap opera roles along the way, most notably on One Life to Live (1968) as Erika Slezak's one-time husband. He grew into a reliable character actor and was also seen on the stage in later years.
Out of the limelight for quite some time, Lee remained quite private, and his death on Valentine's Day in 2007 at a Galveston Island, Texas hospital of congestive heart failure (complicated by lung cancer and emphysema) was not reported until nearly a year later. A sizable portion of his estate went to charitable organizations such as the St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which was founded by his good friend Danny Thomas.- Actor
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He was born in Garforth, Leeds. His father worked for the NE Railway Company and his grandfather had been manager of Garforth Colliery. His brother Robert's son was the actor David (Henderson) Tate. He went to private schools in York including St Martin's and followed his father into the Railway before joining the Army.- Actor
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A veteran of stage, screen, radio and TV, character actor Nigel Stock was born in Malta in 1919, the son of Captain W.H. Stock, RE, and his wife Margaret Marion Munro. In British India from childhood, he and his sister Angela returned to the UK in his early teens for schooling. Nigel was educated at St. Paul's School and studied for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he earned the Leverhulme Exhibition, Northcliffe Scholarship, and the Principal's Medal.
Stock made his debut stage appearance at the Savoy Theatre in 1931, at the age of 12, in a production of "The Traveller in the Dark". He continued to rack up a number of classical and contemporary credits at various distinguished theaters, including the Old Vic, with productions of "The Winter's Tale", "Macbeth" (playing Macduff), "Tobacco Road" and "Goodbye, Mr. Chips". Stock interrupted his thriving career by serving in the Army from 1939 to 1941 with the London Irish Rifles, and with the Assam Regiment, Indian Army between 1941 and 1945 in Burma, China and Kohima. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Major. He returned to the stage in 1946 with "And No Birds Sing" and made his first appearance on the New York stage as "Philip" in "You Never Can Tell" in 1948. A reliable player who lent distinction to every aspect of the theatrical repertoire, from William Shakespeare through Anton Chekhov to modern farce, he impressed in "She Stoops to Conquer", "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial", "Altona", "Uncle Vanya" and "Sleuth", among others.
An imposing, often bearded presence, he started off in films as a teenager in Lancashire Luck (1937), later appearing in such popular British releases as Brighton Rock (1948), The Dam Busters (1955), Damn the Defiant! (1962), The Lost Continent (1968), The Lion in Winter (1968), Cromwell (1970) and Russian Roulette (1975), often appearing in villainous roles. Interestingly, one of his last performances was a character part in the Steven Spielberg production of Young Sherlock Holmes (1985). Between 1964-1968, Stock made a household name for himself playing Dr. Watson" in Sherlock Holmes (1964).
Stock had a devout interest in ornithology. His third wife was actress Richenda Carey. They appeared together on stage in the world premiere of "Mumbo Jumbo" from May 8-May 31, 1986. Less than a month later, Stock died on June 23rd of a heart attack. He was survived by four children.- John Fraser was born on 18 March 1931 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Repulsion (1965), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) and El Cid (1961). He died on 7 November 2020 in London, England, UK.
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George was stage struck at the age of 14 and ran away from school to get a 25 shilling (25p) a week job at a seaside theatre, He spent 6 years going through the mill of small town repertory theatre then the cinema discovered him. After making 12 films he left the studios for 7 years during which time he went back to the theatre appearing in classics at the Old Vic and plays in the West End with films in between - his 13th was The Curse of the Fly,- Actor
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Walter Hudd was born on 20 February 1897 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Major Barbara (1941), Housemaster (1938) and Footsteps in the Sand (1939). He died on 20 January 1963 in London, England, UK.- Basil Dignam was born on 24 October 1905 in Ecclesall Bierlow, Yorkshire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Department S (1969), Gorgo (1961) and The Stars Look Down (1974). He was married to Mona Washbourne. He died on 31 January 1979 in Westminster, London, England, UK.
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The distinctively white-haired, bushy-browed Northern Irish novelist, playwright and character actor, Joseph Tomelty was born the eldest of seven children in the small fishing village of Portaferry, County Down. He initially followed in his father's footsteps as a house painter. Early on, life on the stage might have seemed inconceivable because of a noticeable stutter. He thus began his working career employed as a painter at Belfast's Harland and Wolff Shipyards, also attending Belfast Technical College. After being inspired by a performance of "Juno and the Paycock" by the Abbey Theatre Company, he became involved with the St. Peter's Players in 1937, making his first mark on the stage. The following year, he wrote a comedic radio play ("Barnum is Right") and in 1940 became a founding member of the Belfast Group Theatre. While acting as the company's General Manager from 1942 to 1951, he later reflected that his tasks also routinely included those of "booking clerk, ticket collector, cloak room attendant, sweeper up, scene painter, programme seller, chucker out and actor" (Drama, March 1953).
In addition to eight plays (of which his "All Souls' Night", a play about greed, ambition and the effects of poverty, is regarded as a classic of Irish literature) and two novels, the versatile Tomelty wrote and acted in "The McCooey's", a weekly radio serial about working class life, broadcast by BBC Northern Ireland between 1948 and 1954. He also sidelined as a busy character actor in British and American films, including such prestige productions as Odd Man Out (1947), Hobson's Choice (1954), Moby Dick (1956) and A Night to Remember (1958). Tomelty's writing career came to an end after he sustained injuries in a car crash in England while filming Bhowani Junction (1956), though he continued to appear in occasional films until 1964 and remained a fixture in Northern Irish theatre.- Actor
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The son of Dr. Charles Buckman Goring M.D. and Kate Winifred (nee MacDonald). Marius Goring was educated at Perse School, Cambridge, England and at the Universities of Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Paris. He studied for the stage under Harcourt Williams at the Old Vic dramatic school, London. His first stage appearance was at Cambridge in 1925 in "Crossings". His first London appearance was at the Rudolph Steiner Hall, December 1927 as Harlequin. He performed at the Old Vic, Sadler's Wells and toured France and Germany. he played Macbeth, Romeo, Trip in School for Scandal amongst others. His first west end appearance was at the Shaftesbury Theatre, May 1934 in the Voysey Inheritance. He joined the army in June 1940 and became the supervisor of productions of the BBC service broadcasts. Most of his army work was done under the alias Charles Richardson. For some reason the name GORING wasn't too popular at the time. He was a founder member of British Equity in 1929. He lists his recreations as walking, riding, skating and travelling.- Linked inextricably with actor Basil Radford, Welsh-born character actor Naunton Wayne, together with Radford, struck such a major chord with film audiences as an inept, uppercrust pair of cricket-obsessed British gents, that the two were invariably teamed up time and time again in a host of "veddy" popular film comedies. The perennial partners would prove equally popular on radio.
Next to the hearty, mustachioed Radford, the dapper-looking Wayne paled in size and appeared much tweedier in appearance. Born on June 22, 1901, he was educated at Clifton College in Bristol. A comic entertainer in Wales for the first eight years of his career, he arrived in London in 1928 and was utilized as an emcee and quipster in a number of West End stage productions, concert parties, vaudeville shows, cabarets and such night clubs as the Ritz, the Dorchester and Cafe de Paris. He didn't even consider straight acting roles until 1937. The legendary Alfred Hitchcock ignited the team spark after casting both in his classic mystery The Lady Vanishes (1938). As the characters Charters and Caldicott traveling by train through Europe, they nearly stole the show as a pair of cricket twits completely oblivious to the murder and mayhem happening on board, with victims piling up on the corridor floors, nefarious Nazis on the prowl and missing passengers nowhere to be found. Totally irrelevant to the plot, Wayne and Radford provided marvelously droll relief and their instant rapport, expertly written by screenwriters Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, did not go unnoticed.
The duo showed up again, courtesy of Gilliat and Launder, in director Carol Reed's Night Train to Munich (1940) -- same characters, same setting, same Hitchcockian suspense, same laughs. Radio was a natural diversion as well with Launder and Gilliat writing a serial for their Charters and Caldicott characters which they called "Crooks' Tour" in 1940. A same-titled film with them as the centerpiece was released the following year. They also popped up together in wartime shorts and co-starred in a second radio serial, "Secret Mission 609," with their usual bungling somehow foiling another sinsiter Nazi plot. The film Millions Like Us (1943) also utilized their popular deadpan characters, and they appeared in cameos together in The Next of Kin (1942) and the "Golfing Story" segment of the classic thriller Dead of Night (1945). Launder and Gilliat claimed a copyright on the character names so when Wayne and Radford turned down roles in the writers' I See a Dark Stranger (1946) due to their undernourished parts, Wayne and Radford bid adieu to the characters and returned to radio--together.
Their first appearance in "Double Bedlam" spawned a series of comedy-thrillers including "Traveller's Joy," "Crime Gentlemen Please," "That's My Baby," "Having a Wonderful Crime" and "May I Have the Treasure." This led back to their co-starring in films. In the vehicle It's Not Cricket (1949), in which they appeared as the characters Bright and Early, they played private eyes dogged by yet another Nazi. The climax was set, of course, during a cricket match. They made cameo appearances in two other late 1940s comedies Helter Skelter (1949) and Stop Press Girl (1949). While appearing on their 1952 radio adventure "Rogues' Gallery," Radford, age 55, suffer a fatal heart attack. Wayne continued the storyline alone.
Wayne appeared rather sparingly thereafter, usually in officious "perfect Englishman" roles. He filmed his final picture playing Lord Whitebait in Nothing Barred (1961). His last role was on the TV series John Browne's Body (1969). He passed away on November 17, 1970 in Surbiton, Surrey, England. - George Merritt was born on 10 December 1890 in Clapton, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Q Planes (1939), The Persuaders! (1971) and A Canterbury Tale (1944). He died on 27 August 1977 in Parliament Hill, Hampstead, London, England, UK.
- Diminutive Scottish character player with trademark neatly-trimmed moustache, upturned at the ends, who began as a juvenile soprano vocalist in the late 1890's with a family variety act. At one time he performed 15 times daily at a waxworks ! Watson didn't start in films until 1929, when 'discovered' in Hollywood while on an American vacation. His stay in the U.S. was cut short, however, and after one small film role he returned to England to become one of the 'versatiles', adept at playing an assortment of archetypal Britishers, often shifty or cunning, sometimes officious, weak or hen-pecked.
Without doubt, one of his best roles was that of 'Mr.Memory' in Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps (1935), who claimed that he stored fifty new facts in his brain every day. Though a small part, it was acted with pathos and integral to the unfolding of the plot. Watson also gave good value for money as a small-time crook, one of Richard Attenborough's nasty little razor gang, in Brighton Rock (1948); and as the devious, ever manipulative storekeeper, Joseph Macroon, in Ealing's Whisky Galore! (1949). An adroitness at comedy Watson had already shown way back in the wartime educational short (warning against the dangers of ignoring blackout ordinances), Mr. Proudfoot Shows a Light (1941), where his billiard-playing antics are rudely - and to comic effect - interrupted by a German bomb.
Wylie Watson retired from acting in 1952 (except for a small part in Fred Zinnemann's The Sundowners (1960)) and emigrated to Australia, where he died in May 1966. - Actor
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Francis L. Sullivan was born on 6 January 1903 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Great Expectations (1946), Night and the City (1950) and Oliver Twist (1948). He was married to Frances Joan Perkins (designer). He died on 19 November 1956 in New York City, New York, USA.- Actor
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Jack Warner started acting with the Sutton Amateur Dramatics Club after the end of World War I. From 1935, performed in cabaret at the London West End as half of the double act of Warner & Darnell. In addition to starring as Dixon of Dock Green (1955), which ran for over 20 years, he achieved lasting popularity on screen in the role of Joe Huggett, patriarch of a Cockney family, in Holiday Camp (1947), and its three sequels (plus a radio serial). Towards the end of his working life, 1976-80, Warner made a brief return to cabaret, before a stroke brought about his retirement.- Actor
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The British character actor Bernard Miles was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex, England, in 1907; his father was a farm laborer and his mother was a cook. After graduation from Pembroke College, Oxford, he was a teacher for a while and then joined the New Theatre in London. In 1937, he worked in Herbert Farjeon's revue company and established his theatrical career. He made appearances in relatively few films, serving as director, producer, and screenwriter, as well as actor, on a number of them. In 1959, Miles opened the Mermaid Theatre in London; his contributions to the London stage won him a knighthood in 1969 and a life peerage ten years later.- Associated with gritty, flashy film villainy, veteran character actor Torin Herbert Erskine Thatcher was born in Bombay, India to British parents on January 15, 1905. The son of a police officer (who died when Torin was 10) and a voice/piano teacher, he was educated in England at the Bedford School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.
A former schoolteacher, he appeared on the London stage, notably the Old Vic, in 1927 before entering British films in 1934. He would be notable for his stage prowess in the works of Shaw, Shakespeare, and the Greek tragedies. Among his earlier stage plays was a 1937 version of "Hamlet" which starred Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh. During World War II he served with the Royal Artillery and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was an extremely imposing, powerfully built specimen and it offered him a number of tough, commanding, often sinister roles over the years primarily in larger-than-life action sequences.
Thatcher began in minor roles and progressed to better ones in a number of classic British films in the late 1930s and 1940s as the years went on. They included Sabotage (1936), Dark Journey (1937), Night Train to Munich (1940), Major Barbara (1941), I See a Dark Stranger (1946), The Captive Heart (1946), Great Expectations (1946), as Bentley ("The Spider") Drummle, Jassy (1947) and The Fallen Idol (1948).
In Hollywood from the 1950s on, the actor's looming figure and baleful countenance were constantly in demand, gnashing his teeth in a slew of popular costumers such as The Crimson Pirate (1952), Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952) as reformed pirate Sir Henry Morgan, The Robe (1953), Helen of Troy (1956) as Ulysses, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) as the evil, shaven-domed magician Sokurah who shrinks the princess to miniature size, Witness for the Prosecution (1957) as the prosecuting attorney, The Miracle (1959) as the Duke of Wellington, the Marlon Brando/Trevor Howard remake of Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), and Hawaii (1966).
Thatcher returned to the stage quite frequently, notably on Broadway, in such esteemed productions as "Edward, My Son" (1948), "That Lady" (1949) and "Billy Budd" (1951). In 1959 he portrayed Captain Keller in the award-winning play "The Miracle Worker" with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke.
Also a steady fixture on American TV from the mid-1950's on, Torin appeared in a number of quality TV anthologies ("Omnibus," "Playhouse 90, "Zane Grey Theatre") before making fairly steady guest appearances on such shows as "The Millionaire," "Ellery Queen," "Peter Gunn," "Wagon Train," "Bonanza," "Perry Mason," "The Real McCoys," "The Untouchables," "My THree Sons," "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," "Perry Mason," "Get Smart," "Lost in Space," "Star Trek," "Gunsmoke," "Daniel Boone," "Mission: Impossible," "Night Gallery," "Search" and "Petrocelli." He also showed up in support in the TV movies The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968) starring Jack Palance and Brenda Starr (1976), his final on-camera appearance, starring Jill St. John.
Diagnosed with cancer, Thatcher died on March 4, 1981, in Thousand Oaks, California (near Los Angeles). The widower of TV actress Rita Daniel, he was long married to second wife, Anne Le Borgne, at the time of his death. - Actor
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Sir Cedric Hardwicke, one of the great character actors in the first decades of the talking picture, was born in Lye, England on February 19, 1893. Hardwicke attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and made his stage debut in 1912. His career was interrupted by military service in World War I, but he returned to the stage in 1922 with the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, distinguishing himself as Caesar in George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra, which was his ticket to the London stage. For his distinguished work on the stage and in films, he was knighted by King George V in 1934, a time when very few actors received such an honor.
Hardwicke first performed on the American stage in 1936 and emigrated to the United States permanently after spending the 1948 season with the Old Vic. Hardwicke's success on stage and in films and television was abetted by his resonant voice and aristocratic bearing. Among the major films he appeared in were Les Misérables (1935), Stanley and Livingstone (1939), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), Suspicion (1941), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), and The Ten Commandments (1956).
His last film was The Pumpkin Eater (1964) in 1964. Cedric Hardwicke died on August 6, 1964 in New York City, New York.- Frank Lawton was born on 30 September 1904 in London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for A Night to Remember (1958), The Invisible Ray (1935) and Cavalcade (1933). He was married to Evelyn Laye. He died on 10 June 1969 in London, England, UK.
- Born in Beckenham, Kent, English character actor Maurice Denham first came to public notice in the 1940s on radio, appearing on many of the most popular comedy series of the day in a variety of characters. His debut in films came in 1947 with The Smugglers (1947). His talents came to the forefront in the animated feature Animal Farm (1954), in which he voiced all of the animal characters. A prolific actor, his familiar sharp features and bald head appeared in dozens of films over the following years, often as charming but slightly 'barmy' characters and well-bred cads, although he was more than capable of playing straight drama, as he did in the war picture Sink the Bismarck! (1960) as a naval officer helping to hunt down and sink the German battleship. He began appearing regularly in television in the 1970s and also worked steadily on the stage.
He died of natural causes at age 92 in London, England. - Actor
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Ewan Roberts was born on 29 April 1914 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. He was an actor, known for Colonel March Investigates (1953), The Internecine Project (1974) and Colonel March of Scotland Yard (1954). He was married to Margery Vosper. He died on 10 January 1983 in London, England, UK.- Actor
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John Slater was born on 22 August 1916 in London, England, UK. He was an actor and writer, known for Othello (1946), Man with a Million (1954) and Violent Playground (1958). He was married to Betty Levy (actress). He died on 9 January 1975 in London, England, UK.- Actor
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Anthony Bushell was born on 19 May 1904 in Westerham, Kent, England, UK. He was an actor and producer, known for The Scarlet Pimpernel (1934), Five Star Final (1931) and A Night to Remember (1958). He was married to Anne Pearce-Serocold and Zelma O'Neal. He died on 2 April 1997 in Oxford, England, UK.- Tall, rugged, red-haired character actor whose heavily lined face suggested a hard life. Started in show biz with his father, Nosmo King (real name Vernon Watson), as half of a music hall double act. Later worked as a monologuist and impersonator in radio. During the Second World War, he served as petty officer in the Royal Navy. An unlikely comedian during the first half of his career, he became a stalwart character actor in films of the 1960's and 70's, generally utilised as by-the-book police inspectors (Peeping Tom (1960), Konga (1961), or gruff, laconic soldiers (The Hill (1965), Tobruk (1967)). An avid sportsman in real life, he was effectively cast as Len Miller, captain of a Rugby League team, in Lindsay Anderson's This Sporting Life (1963). He also impressed in the villainous role of corrupt police officer Quince in The Strange Affair (1968).
Watson's career was rejuvenated in the 1970's, with strong parts in television, particularly as the star of The Rebellious Red Gauntlets (1970) and as Llud, right hand man to Oliver Tobias, in Arthur of the Britons (1972). He also made sporadic appearances on Coronation Street (1960) and Z Cars (1962). A man of few pretensions, Watson rejected offers from Hollywood, and remained firmly rooted to British screens. - English actor Leslie Banks' film career would be negligible compared to his prestigious theatrical one if it were not for four exceptions. Hitchcock, for one, gave him the occasion to shine in two of his films, in a sympathetic role in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1934) and in an outright unsympathetic one in "Jamaica Inn" (1938) - a telltale illustration, by the way, of the extent of his talent. The actor is also remembered for "Henry V" (1944), Laurence Olivier's masterful adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy. It is fun to hear Banks roll his r's (hey! The year is 1600 after all!) while he introduces and comments the play to the audience of the Globe Theatre. But oddly enough, the thespian never made a bigger impression than in his first screen appearance, way back in 1932. Who indeed has forgotten the ruthless, ferocious, evil Count Zaroff, specializing in human game hunting, from Cooper and Schoedsack's horror classic "The Most Dangerous Game"? Banks' other movies, consisting mostly of B movies and World War II propaganda fare, did not leave a comparable impact. Maybe because Leslie Banks, always more interested in the theatre of which he was a big name, was not demanding enough in the choice of his films. On the boards, that is where he got great parts in great plays: Captain Hook in "Peter Pan", Petruchio in "The Taming of the Shrew", Mr. Chipping in "Goodbye Mr. Chips", James Jarvis in the Kurt Weill musical "Lost in the Stars", and many many others. Born in 1890 in West Derby near Liverpool, he studied at Keble College, Oxford. First wanting to be a parson, he became an actor instead, making his debut in 1911. His reputation rapidly rose, and Banks never stopped working until his untimely death, not only in England but also in the USA where he toured as early as 1912. With only one interruption, though a big one, due to World War I. Banks, who served with the Essex Regiment then, was wounded in the face, one side remaining permanently paralyzed. Which did not prevent him from quickly resuming his activities, at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre first, then in London, New York and Hollywood. Unfortunately, if the delightfully threatening figure of Zaroff will rest forever in our minds, Leslie Banks physically disappeared in 1952, only aged 61, hit by a sudden stroke. He has been missed since.
- Norman Pierce was born on 5 September 1900 in Southport, Lancashire, England, UK. He was an actor, known for The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), Saloon Bar (1940) and Badger's Green (1949). He was married to Mary Evelyn Pierce. He died on 22 March 1968 in Helions Bumpstead, Essex, England, UK.
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Robert Coote (1909-1982) was an English actor who had a thriving career for 50 years. He is best remembered for originating the role of Colonel Pickering in My Fair Lady (1964), Alan Jay Lerner & Frederick Loewe's musical adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion (1938), for which he was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Featured Actor in a Musical in 1957. He also originated the role of King Pellinore in Lerner & Loewe's 1960 Broadway musical Camelot (1967).
Coote played Colonel Pickering on Broadway and London, but Wilfrid Hyde-White was cast in the Oscar-winning 1964 movie despite Coote's extensive movie career. In fact, Coote had specialized in playing aristocrats and military men in countless films, most notably as Sergeant Bertie Higginbotham in George Stevens's 1939 classic Gunga Din (1939). (In real life, Coote served with the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War Two, becoming a squadron leader.)
He possibly was overlooked for the movie (as was Julie Andrews, more notably) due to a strained relationship with star Rex Harrison, who stole business originated by Coote during the original Broadway production. Harrison resented Coote after unsuccessfully demanding to take over a famous piece of business created by Coote, Colonel Pickering's telephone call. Coote recreated the role in the 1976 Broadway revival.- Brian Worth was born on 14 July 1914 in Willesden, London, England, UK. He was an actor, known for Holiday Week (1952), Quatermass and the Pit (1958) and A Christmas Carol (1951). He died on 25 August 1978 in Seville, Spain.