 An irascible character player who began acting when nearly 40 at the Players Theatre in 1944 and entered films in the same year (Champagne Charlie, d. Alberto Cavalcanti; Fiddlers Three, d. Harry Watt; For Those in Peril, d. Charles Crichton). Also a journalist and naturalist, as well as a falconry expert, he had made about 30 films before the role of senior surgeon, Sir Lancelot Spratt, in Doctor in the House (d. Ralph Thomas, 1954) and its sequels made his booming, bearded figure and sarcastic locutions popular with filmgoers. He was never required to do anything very subtle, but what he did was enough to keep him extremely busy for 25 years, and included the strong simple Evans in Scott of the Antarctic (d. Charles Frend, 1948), Little John (of course) in The Story of Robin Hood... (d. Ken Annakin, 1952) and Henry VIII in The Sword and the Rose (d. Annakin, 1953). He also filmed in Hollywood, in David and Bathsheba (US, d. Henry King, 1951), Anne of the Indies (US, d. Jacques Tourneur, 1951), and others. Brian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of British Film
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FILM & TV CREDITS
