 A debonair light comedy (latterly character) actor with a film career stretching from Lassie from Lancashire (d. John Paddy Carstairs, 1938) to Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (US/UK/Germany/Japan, d. Simon West, 2001). In the period 1959-76 his image was defined in the public imagination: fair-haired, with thin moustache, rakish charm and distinctive leery laugh. From Italia Conti stage school he made his London debut in 1935, and post-WW2 service had smallish roles in British films, but it was Lt. Pouter in the hit BBC-radio comedy series The Navy Lark in 1958 (filmed 1959, d. Gordon Parry) which made him a star. An expert farceur, he was very busy in British comedy films between 1959 and 1963 - in four Carry Ons, and a foxy replacement for Dirk Bogarde in three Doctor films. As the good taste and budget of British film comedy declined in the '70s, he was missing from films to be reborn as a character actor in the '80s, playing colonial types in two US productions Out of Africa (d. Sydney Pollack, 1985) and Empire of the Sun (d. Steven Spielberg, 1987), and perfect as Lord Astor in Scandal (d. Michael Caton-Jones, 1989). Busy since in British and US film, stage and TV, specialising in vicars, louche aristocrats and aged roués, always suggesting a rich history, and a notable Falstaff for the RSC (1997). He was awarded the OBE in 1998. His first wife was Penelope Bartley, whose only film was The Big Chance (d. Peter Graham Scott, 1957), his second is Angela Scoular. Roger Philip Mellor, Encyclopedia of British Film .
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FILM & TV CREDITS
