As dullards have it, she was a child actress who ‘went rude’. That’s it, case closed, knowing harrumphs all round, retire haughtily...
Crypto-European man of letters who, when he wasn’t helping Powell and Pressburger with dialogue, divided his time between upper crust British types...
Or Jimmy Stewart as was. And just like his transatlantic namesake, he was the finest example of the old fashioned, clean cut...
Derided by petifogging walloons the world over for being ‘too nice’ as Blofeld in Diamonds Are Forever, which we just can’t agree...
‘The formidable South African bear’ as the tragically premature obituaries would have it, Nigel Green towered over Michael Caine in The Ipcress...
Nominated by Duncan Steele as ‘the “if wet” for every UK actor of the 50’s and 60’s, deserves to be in the...
Ah, ‘The Stranger in our Midst’. The mask behind the mask. His own name escapes him. The only role that was beyond...
It’s not easy to make a successful career out of being a grumpy, permanently annoyed buffoon. Just ask John Prescott [SATIRE] but...
You’ve already got a mental picture of a charlady in your head, possibly augmented by that distinctive ‘cockney lady trying to put...
Characterised by Clive James as permanently baring his lower teeth, and to be fair there’s lots to have a go at Dickie...
The celebrated wine bibber and talky-singer is now inextricably linked, thanks to wet bank holidays innumerable, with his gruff attempts at carrying...
We know what you’re thinking, so let’s get it out of the way – yes, Billy H will forever be associated by...
From pantomime elf to captain of the Compass Rose, Jack Hawkins was one of those actors who looked to the stage first,...
A genius. No, really. And we don’t even feel the need to preface that with the mealy-mouthed ‘of course, the word “genius”...
If your childhood was anything like ours, a) you’re in serious trouble, and b) you’ll have first noticed La Hayden in Shillingbury...
Long before he donned an ill-fitting rug and stepped gamely into the tape-measure-wielding breach when Mr Grainger no longer found himself free,...
We’ve neither the time nor the sufficient number of decimal places to calculate exactly how many ‘Faces of the Sxties’, male and...
Much more than a smart way to shut up bores who demand a list of famous Belgians, Aud quickly moved up the...
Always adding a touch of class to his two minutes or more in many a comedy, with a good part in “The...
Yes, you know how this one’s going to go: More than Marple! Well, more in the sense of ‘lots of other fussy...
A man who always seems to be clad in either a toga or a long coat (or, at the end of The...
David Cronenberg wishes he had anything as scary as Renee Houston in his films. Music hall comedy act (no easy job for...
‘I’ve been number two in films for donkey’s years,’ quoth the stalwart support actor’s stalwart support actor, and he was right. Not...
A man for all seasons, but preferably with grumpiness involved. Gord’s memory lives on via the Upstairs, Downstairs/Professionals telly double, for sure,...
Once, twice, thrice, four times a Matron of course, but to write off La Jacques as a comically predatory medical chubbster is...
Two separate careers, or two ends of the same cackling candle? There’s the filthy Johannesburger’s comedy cockney sark, from Hancock through to...
As nominated by Mike Davis: ‘So good as the forerunner of Mr Mackay from Porridge as “CPO Crouty” in the Peter Sellers...
All-singing, all-dancing, all-piano-playing – ‘the complete actress’ as The Stage would have it. Glynis has certainly had a full career, lasting pretty...
A late arrival to the actors’ ball, Freddie Jones got stuck into cinema with enviable gusto. It’s more likely the prevalence of...
Mike Davis again steps up to the lectern: ‘The original and the best, who could probably out shout Brian Blessed at ten...
Now, whatever you think of the two productions involved, you have to admit – A Clockwork Orange and So Haunt Me: that’s...
She started off as straight girl to the likes of Arthur Askey and Tommy Handley, but when Gainsborough came a-knocking with a...
One of those stars who, if it wasn’t for the fact she’s so often ignored these days, we’d think twice about putting...
Well, what to say? The picture used to illustrate the word ‘stalwart’ in dictionaries, if there’s any justice, and if the sorts...
When you get to people like the lanky, squash-nosed Sam Kydd, you’re in vague territory. No-one’s quite sure exactly how many films...
Oozing charm from every pore he oiled his way across the floor, to purloin a phrase from a small time musical, Dinsdale...
Easily forgotten (by Americans, at least) that he was an Ulverston lad, but the heavy reliance that Hollywood film comedy had on...
Ah, you can hear the lazy terminology here: ‘craggy’, ‘brooding’, etc., like the harsh, rugged landscape of his native… But sod all...
Mike Davis once more: ‘A sort of Carry On regular beauty and earlier even in the St T films. Nice performance as...
That it’s possible to get worked up about The Mezh being solely known for a single role of such manifold brilliance and...
We’ll have to watch what we say here. Does he still hate people banging on about Dracula or not? We don’t remember....
Not one, but two stereotypes cling to Val – as a buxom secretary being leered at by a tubby character actor in...
It’s hard now to appreciate how ‘naughty’ the Gainsborough Girls were in their day. Heaving bosoms had to be snipped out for...
Take a close look at that ’50s/’60s war film you’ve got there. Who’s that stocky bloke, standing near the back, in a...
We kind of regret over-using the phrase ‘starting as he meant to go on’ in these entries, because what have we got...
Another of those actors who did films ‘purely’ to subsidise their more important work on the stage, but such snobbery is by...
There are no middles with Miles Malleson. He’s either right at the top of the social pecking order (Sir Oswald Pettiford, the...
His stentorian bronchial tones have been the source material for a thousand shite after dinner impressions, but no matter, for his on-screen...
One of the legion of unknown, unremembered and unnamed supporting actors that littered films of all shades up until the world went...
It may seem like a career Ground Zero for those coming at the monocular Aussie’s works from the wrong end, but Rumpole...
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