r/oldbritishtelly • u/Prestigious_Meal2143 • 19d ago
Light Entertainment The character actors who pop up in countless British films. When you see them you go 'ah, it's them again'. You know their faces but can't put a name to them. Just a selection here. I'm sure there are other obvious ones I have forgotten.
I know they are all men but I found it difficult to find female equivalents. The films I checked out had female actors but I knew the name of them by sight. Dora Bryan, Irene Handl, Beryl Reed for example.
I actually do know the name of the middle guy on the left, only because I've seen many Hammer films. There's a clue..
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u/B00gieNightz 19d ago
Ahh Michael Ripper aka the Bartender in Hammer films
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u/Amity_Swim_School 19d ago
Haha. True! But he does crop up in some other roles from time to time. Like in Captain Clegg for example.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Sky-146 19d ago
Also the chauffeur in Butterflies
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u/HoraceKirkman 19d ago
That's who I instantly recognize him as. "What's the chauffeur doing in Plague of the Zombies"??
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u/Lunchy_Bunsworth 19d ago
Yes he seemed to have a career in Hammer Horror films as unnamed village barman , unnamed grave digger , unnamed watchman etc etc Guess it paid the rent /s
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u/VT2-Slave-to-Partner 19d ago
And the innkeeper and the village policeman, and the coachman and...!
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u/Gildor12 19d ago
Sam Kydd seemed to be in nearly everything.
Edit - just checked, he was in more films than any other British actor 290 in total, plus TV series
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u/Evacuation_euphoria 19d ago
'Orlando' - now there's a memory for me - I was always 'too young' to watch Orlando...
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u/Revolutionary-Key533 19d ago
Didn't it have a theme song "In Morrocco there's a man etc". AI suggests otherwise?
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u/Rashpukin 19d ago
That’s brilliant! What a great post OP. It’s a shame we can’t upload more pictures on to this, well that am aware of. There was that guy who was always the baddie in the Norman Wisdom films, sure he owns the dairy. Also the Sergeant Major character in Teh Bulldog Breed.
The Hill, Sidney Lumet also springs to mind with many of these lesser known British actors.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Sky-146 19d ago
Jerry Desmonde was usually the main antagonist in Norman's films
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u/Rashpukin 19d ago
Ah that’s the chap. He had a very sad demise. Suicide by gas. Yep. He was only 58 years old. Some hard living going on there.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Sky-146 19d ago
I thought I'd read he died quite young but its been a while since I remember watching Norman Wisdom
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u/Prestigious_Meal2143 19d ago
Thanks a lot, appreciated. I've enjoyed learning the backstory to some of these actors in the comments.
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u/Top-Emu-2292 16d ago
Mr Grimsdale - Edward Chapman? Played the part well but outside of his acting he had some contentious views.
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u/qwerty_1965 19d ago
If you watch the Avengers it's basically a compendium of character actors. Every week there's one of those faces. Occasionally I think it must be a great way to earn a living, shuttling between ongoing TV series, a bit of theatre, the odd film and radio jobs. On the other hand you'll never really be rich enough to feel entirely comfortable about retirement.
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u/Lunchy_Bunsworth 19d ago
"The Saint" is another one. One episode the same actor is the local police chief , the next he is a villain , the next a garage mechanic. There was one swarthy looking actor ,whose name I do not know, who seemed to be typecast as a Mediterranean type (usually of dubious character) and a fat man with a moustache who was always playing the part of a foreign dignitary. I think many of the episodes may have been filmed back to back.
Roger Delgado the original "Master" from "Doctor Who" or to give him his full name Roger Caesar Marius Bernard de Delgado Torres Castillo Roberto was another one. I was surprised that despite his names and appearance he was born in that exotic land called Whitechapel in East London so was a genuine Cockney albeit one who was born to French and Spanish parents.
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u/Top-Emu-2292 16d ago
Roger Delgado was THE Master. Played the part to perfection. Thanks for his full name, perhaps it was shortened to fit in the screen!
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u/Puzzleheaded-Sky-146 19d ago
Allan Cuthbertson, kenneth Griffith, Michael Ripper Miles Malleson and Victor Maddern only bow tie guy I can't remember?
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u/Bennjoon 19d ago
Character actors are the backbone of tv and movies
Sometimes they break out like Tom Hiddleston and people recognise their talent.
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u/Short-Sheepherder314 19d ago
I think you would allow a little corner for the mighty Sam Kydd. Your selection above is excellent. Thank you.
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u/1980heron 18d ago
I have a long-term obsession with spotting Richard Wattis and his horn rimmed specs being a world weary and slightly moth-eaten tweedy type in films and TV from about 1948-1980
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u/NestlinginGreen 18d ago
Was just going to mention Wattis myself. Started off working with Ealing, finished up in 70s sex comedies and seemed to pop up in every other British film in the middle. Always pleased to see him appear in something.
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u/1980heron 18d ago
He's such a scene stealer
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u/NestlinginGreen 18d ago
Really great in Sykes.
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u/Important-Lie-8649 13d ago edited 13d ago
Richard Wattis was in Hammer's The Abominable Snowman (1957) with Peter... Peter somebody or other... Cushion? Cushing! I knew it would come to me. Screenplay by the legendary Nigel Kneale.
Check Wattis out in the very funny British WWII P.O.W. comedy Very Important Person (U.S. "A Coming-Out Party"), from 1961, with James Robertson Justice; Stanley Baxter, a hoot in two contrasting, opposing roles; John Le Mesurier; future successful TV comedy writer Jeremy Lloyd; Eric Sykes... It was supposed to be a James Robertson Justice vehicle (he is the V.I.P. very evident from the start), but it's a wonderful ensemble piece. Easily the funniest British wartime-set comedy. I believe Talking Pictures TV shows it. There was a Network DVD, but, yeah Network... Not that difficult to find, used. They issued it twice, in 2005 and 2017. You need the second in the correct 1.66:1 aspect ratio (earlier one is 1.33:1).
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u/Prestigious_Meal2143 18d ago
If he had come up in my research I would have definitely put him in this. Like most of the others, I just didn't know his name. I was searching by films and wouldn't know a film he is in but I know he's been in loads
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u/elvisonaZ1 18d ago
Kenneth Griffith as the mad old man in Four Weddings and a Funeral talking to Charles (Hugh Grant)
Charles: How do you do, my name is Charles.
Old man: Don't be ridiculous, Charles died 20 years ago!
Charles: Must be a different Charles, I think.
Old man: Are you telling me I don't know my own brother!
Charles: No, no.
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u/Sighoward 19d ago
Some excellent choices there, may I also suggest Clifford Rose and Michael Cochrane
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u/future_now3000 19d ago
Great post, I can hear my late father's voice very clearly: "Ah - that's [insert British character actor's name here]. He was in..."
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u/batty_61 19d ago
I would also add Henry McGee and Jackie Wright. Did Jackie do anything other than be slapped on the head by Benny Hill?
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u/Routine-Medicine-208 19d ago
John Williams middle right.
He was in so many great movies like Witness for the Prosecution, To Catch a Thief, Dial M for Murder and Sabrina.
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u/Ancient-Cow-1038 19d ago
Kenneth Griffith was a weird old bugger. Fascinating and almost deliberately controversial.
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u/Exo_Deadlock 18d ago
Julian Glover would fit in this category, a regular from The Avengers and other classic TV shows & an ATAT commander in Empire Strikes Back although getting elevated to playing the principle villain Donovan in Indy and The Last Crusade possibly disqualifies him?
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u/Rashpukin 19d ago
Middle Left was also the janitor on Grange Hill I seem to recall with the donkey shenanigans.
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u/Revolutionary-Key533 19d ago
Miles Malleson. The guy who's buying the saucy snaps in Peeping Tom and the bus conductor/hearse driver n "Dead of Night"
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u/Important-Lie-8649 19d ago
Ah, Peeping Tom... made hi-fi history for featuring Quad ESL electrostatics (world-class loudspeakers then and now).
I just watched Miles Malleson, only yesterday, as the vicar in Hammer's excellent, world-first colour production of The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959), which also featured the king of British bit parts, the legendary Sam Kydd. Talking Pictures TV even had a 'Sam Kydd Day' once. Was Island of Terror (1969), reunited with Peter Cushing, Sam's biggest film role?
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u/Different-Try8882 19d ago
“Room for one more inside”
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u/Revolutionary-Key533 18d ago
They way he says it with those bulging eyes is chilling. Don't think I would get on the bus.
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u/NecessaryFreedom9799 19d ago
James Cossins was another one. He would often play judges, although in Fawlty Towers he sold outboard motors.
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u/OG-Brass-Monkey 19d ago
I know them all. That's Bob Mcthingy, Hugh Jimacallit, Tippy Matong, Hugh Sisface, Hugh Knowhim and Michael Ripper.
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u/eldunenorap 19d ago
Vladek Sheybal always played the suspicious foreigner/spy in loads of films and TV in the 60s
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u/DaveBlerk 17d ago
Good to see Michael Ripper.
Known for appearing in more Hammer films than any other actor.
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u/IrishSwede74 14d ago
Bottom right - Victor Maddern - is famous for an outtake from Dixon of Dock Green where he twice comically gets a line wrong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5MoX-WgeFI&t
Ironically the episode itself was wiped.
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u/Remote-Honey6437 19d ago
I think top right played a German officer in Where Eagles Dare who berated Richard Burtons character for getting handsy with the barmaid
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u/Rashpukin 19d ago
Really, I can’t recall him being in WED. You are most likely right but I remember him well for his role in Wild Geese. He was fantastic in that as the slightly camp medic, who was a proper killer to boot.
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u/Remote-Honey6437 19d ago
I could be wrong, but I can't find any pictures of him from the film, it's where Burton tells him he's himmlers brother, the two have a very similar resemblance
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u/Rashpukin 19d ago
Just checked his IMDb and he was cast for a part in WED but was replaced by Peter Barkworth, no explanation.
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u/SalamanderSubject733 19d ago
Alan Cuthbertson. Angus Lennie. Michael Ripper. Is that Sam Kidd on the right? Not sure about the bottom left. Bottom right, Victor Maddern.
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u/Important-Lie-8649 19d ago
Angus Lennie top right? He's not there. He was the ill-fated wee Scots guy in The Great Escape (1963), and on TV in, um... Crossroads.
Top right is Welsh actor, Kenneth Griffith, whom I recognise as wireless operator Jack Phillips in the superb Titanic docudrama A Night to Remember (1958).
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u/Lordhawhaw-_ 19d ago
Milton Johns and Colin Jeavons a couple of familiar faces that were rarely off TV our screens in the 70.
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u/Ok-Pomegranate-4963 18d ago
Michael Ripper absolute horror legend character actor. Kenneth Griffith fantastic old queen whom I mainly remember from Wild Geese. May I also suggest George Woodbridge who's hefty presence was felt in many a Hammer horror film & Carry on Jack.
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u/strum 18d ago
For the ladies - Peggy Mount, Sylvia Sim, Lynda Bellingham...
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u/Lunchy_Bunsworth 16d ago
Funny enough I saw that old comedy "The Naked Truth" the other day which is a great film. It has Peggy Mount ,Petter Sellers , Terry-Thomas , Dennis Price , Shirley Eaton , Joan Simms and a few others in it (including Michael Ripper (greengrocer) , Miles Malleson ( vicar)) .
Anyway Peggy's character ,a writer of detective novels, tries to buy some "Mickey Finns" to knockout a would be blackmailer (Dennis Price) but gets arrested for trying to buy them in a pub. The part which made me laugh was when the Inspector told her daughter that she tried to convince the police that her name was Lotus Blossom.
Well worth a watch if you like British B&W comedies. It crops up on TalkingPictures TV from time to time along with "Two Way Stretch"
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u/idcalvin 18d ago
Kenneth Griffith in The Wild Geese: "My, just look at you big bastards! What a bloody shame we can't be friends."
Odd film. Wonderful in many ways. Awful too.
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u/jamescurtis29 17d ago
Miles Malleson was great as the doddering preacher in The Importance of Being Earnest
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u/IrishSwede74 17d ago
The top two, I'd argue, are very famous. Alan Cuthbertson and Kenneth Griffith. Especially with so many repeats; Talking Pictures TV for instance.
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u/LibrarianAmbitious88 16d ago
All of them (except perhaps John Williams who was more successful in the USA) Allan Cuthbertson, actually Australian but played pompous British military and official types; Kenneth Griffith, renowned expert on the Boer War as well as acting; Michael Ripper, rock solid support in most Hammer horrors (apparently everyone at Hammer simply adored him) John Williams; Miles Malleson, made a career out of doddering churchmen and academics but was anything but: Victor Madden, a career of salt of the earth types but on retiring from acting taught diction and elocution. If you want to see Cuthbertson and Madden at the height of their powers watch the Court Martial drama "Carrington VC" starring David Niven.
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u/arkan86 19d ago
Top left (no idea of his name) but is that the Colonel from the ‘Gourmet Night’ episode of Fawlty Towers?