British Character Actors

[YoungWillz 21,058]

On 24/02/2022 at 21:17, msc said:

 

Today is the announcement of the death of Henry Lincoln, aged 92. Toby tweeted confirmation of earlier rumours.

 

 

 

Farewell you grouchy talented man!

Henry Lincoln Telegraph Obit: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2022/02/26/henry-lincoln-main-author-holy-blood-holy-grail-received-later/

[YoungWillz 21,058]

On 11/04/2021 at 10:52, time said:

Actor & writer Ron Pember is 87 today

 

In a 30-year acting career, he was a familiar face on TV screens, appearing in all the usual '60s & 70s shows (The Saint, The Avengers, Department S, UFO etc, etc) his biggest role was that of Alain Muny in The Secret Army. He retired from acting after suffering a stroke in 1992.

 

On 25/01/2017 at 07:49, Bibliogryphon said:

Following on from the Death of Gordon Kaye and the continuing existence of Bernard Hepton and my own unique DDP Clifford Rose I have compiled a list of 20 Secret Army survivors

 

1. Bernard Hepton
2. Jan Francis
3. Angela Richards
4. Christopher Neame
5. Clifford Rose
6. Michael Culver
7. Juliet Hammond-Hill
8. Ron Pember
9. Eileen Page
10. Maria Charles
11. Gunnar Moller
12. Stephen Yardley
13. John D. Collins
14. Hazel McBride
15. Paul Shelley
16. Terence Hardiman
17. Michael Byrne
18. Stephen Chase
19. Bruce Montague
20. John Ratzenberger

Not all of them will necessarily obit but many of them may be noted on Twitter. Big crossover with Blakes' 7 and Doctor Who

Ron Pember being widely reported as dead on the Tweetcast.

 

DDP pick I believe.

 

 

[Handrejka 1,904]

1 hour ago, YoungWillz said:

 

Ron Pember being widely reported as dead on the Tweetcast.

 

DDP pick I believe.

 

 

He is in my IT C theme team.

[time 8,618]

1 hour ago, YoungWillz said:

 

Ron Pember being widely reported as dead on the Tweetcast.

 

DDP pick I believe.

 

 

Never made my Rons team, strangely enough

[time 8,618]

Quote

So pleasingly prolific. I’ll miss his presence in everything. A wonderful actor and writer.

Someone's Twitter tribute; obviously thinks his back-catalogue dies with him.

[Lord Fellatio Nelson 6,219]

The one really good thing about being on this forum is that we get to find out when a prolific, but not well known, character actor dies.

I had no idea that he was Ron Pember, I only knew the face because he was in a shit ton of stuff over the decades.

[Handrejka 1,904]

5 minutes ago, Lord Fellatio Nelson said:

The one really good thing about being on this forum is that we get to find out when a prolific, but not well known, character actor dies.

I had no idea that he was Ron Pember, I only knew the face because he was in a shit ton of stuff over the decades.

I knew his name from Red Dwarf, but he turned up in loads of stuff. It was always fun to see him.

[Toast 16,144]

41 minutes ago, Lord Fellatio Nelson said:

The one really good thing about being on this forum is that we get to find out when a prolific, but not well known, character actor dies.

I had no idea that he was Ron Pember, I only knew the face because he was in a shit ton of stuff over the decades.

 

Oh my goodness, I've just realised he was the conductor in "Casting The Runes", an old Mystery and Imagination episode that scared the shit out of my mum and me.

Tragically the episode was wiped, but there is a surviving trailer that must contain the whole of Ron's part!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v2OpMxYklQ

 

[Octopus of Odstock 2,200]

1 hour ago, Lord Fellatio Nelson said:

The one really good thing about being on this forum is that we get to find out when a prolific, but not well known, character actor dies.

I had no idea that he was Ron Pember, I only knew the face because he was in a shit ton of stuff over the decades.

 

Exactly what I was thinking earlier this evening, both with DL and Pember.

[Toast 16,144]

And Jeremy Child, still languishing in the sci-fi thread.  No doubt a proper obit will come soon.

 

Gotta love this:

... his father who'd worked in the Foreign Office and had hoped that his son would join the Guards. To please his father Jeremy had an interview for the Guards but when he was asked why he wanted to join he said 'I don't' and was told "Well, that's the end of your military career".

 

ETA Guardan obit as expected.

https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/mar/13/jeremy-child-obituary

[msc 18,476]

2 hours ago, Toast said:

 

Oh my goodness, I've just realised he was the conductor in "Casting The Runes", an old Mystery and Imagination episode that scared the shit out of my mum and me.

Tragically the episode was wiped, but there is a surviving trailer that must contain the whole of Ron's part!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v2OpMxYklQ

 

One of the most frustrating bits of lost fictional TV, that.

 

Obviously the moon landing coverage is a bigger archive loss but I'd love to have seen those 60s M.R. James adaptations. 

 

And yes, I think this forum stands out for it's genuine liking of many know the face maybe not the name people from all areas of life. 

[gcreptile 10,978]

Ron Pember QO:

https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1578975/ron-pember-dead-death-only-fools-and-horses-secret-army-tributes-news-latest

[TQR 14,400]

3 minutes ago, gcreptile said:

Ron Pember QO:

https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1578975/ron-pember-dead-death-only-fools-and-horses-secret-army-tributes-news-latest

I’ve been racking my brains trying to think of where I knew his face from, but yes, it’s Only Fools! The one where in the housing meeting he appoints Rodney Vice Chair and then resigns immediately 

[Bibliogryphon 9,587]

2 hours ago, TQR said:

I’ve been racking my brains trying to think of where I knew his face from, but yes, it’s Only Fools! The one where in the housing meeting he appoints Rodney Vice Chair and then resigns immediately 

He was the Taxman in the Red Dwarf episode Better Than Life

[Toast 16,144]

3 hours ago, gcreptile said:

Ron Pember QO:

https://www.express.co.uk/celebrity-news/1578975/ron-pember-dead-death-only-fools-and-horses-secret-army-tributes-news-latest

 

Sourced entirely from social media posts, it seems.

[Grimgrass 514]

Melvyn Hayes attending Anna Karen's funeral today (picture in spoiler below). Looks okay to me.

Spoiler

 

[RoverAndOut 4,746]

On 11/03/2022 at 08:44, TQR said:

I’ve been racking my brains trying to think of where I knew his face from, but yes, it’s Only Fools! The one where in the housing meeting he appoints Rodney Vice Chair and then resigns immediately 

 

Coming to this late in the day, I was going to make this point as it didn't seem to have already been made. It's what I know him for too. Him and Trigger stitching up Rodney who eventually loses his position as Del Boy and Grandad try to scam their way to a better council house. 

[msc 18,476]

13 hours ago, RoverAndOut said:

 

Coming to this late in the day, I was going to make this points it didn't seem to have already been made. It's what I know him for too. Him and Trigger stitching up Rodney who eventually loses his position as Del Boy and Grandad try to scam their way to a better council house. 

 

I thought I'd mentioned this, but it turns out it was in PM instead. So, another great Ron Pember role was in the Bergerac Hallowe'en special Fires in the Fall. Unusually for the gritty cop show, it went full on horror and was actually astonishingly great at it. A boy got killed in a farm fire in the 60s, and twenty years on, the mother of the dead boy is being conned by a charlatan Derek Acorah type. At the same time, the police officer who covered up suspicious facts in the death (ie that it wasn't accidental) is on oxygen, dying, and being stalked by a mysterious figure in black. Jump scares, creepy old houses, arsonist ghosts and Louise Jameson, there's a lot to love in this one.

 

Anyhow, Ron Pember is the aforementioned dodgy ex-cop, and he's very good in the role. As he was in many roles.

 

 

[harrymcnallysblueandwhitearmy 1,689]

Ron coulda been the UK's Lee van Cleef. He coulda been a contendah.

[time 8,618]

Ralph Riach reportedly dead aged 85 or 6; started an acting career at age 50.

 

[YoungWillz 21,058]

Stage Obit for actor turned fight arranger/director Malcolm Ranson: https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/malcolm-ranson

 

Billy Fisher in the 1960 adaptation of The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer.

 

Probably more relevant to folk here was that he was the fight arranger on the original pilot for Blackadder.

 

Can't read the obit, so I have no idea if he was related to Mavis Ranson, uncredited passenger in A Night To Remember and a schoolgirl in the pilot of Doctor Who, but possible?

[Ulitzer95 12,654]

1 hour ago, YoungWillz said:

Stage Obit for actor turned fight arranger/director Malcolm Ranson: https://www.thestage.co.uk/obituaries--archive/obituaries/malcolm-ranson

 

Billy Fisher in the 1960 adaptation of The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer.

 

Probably more relevant to folk here was that he was the fight arranger on the original pilot for Blackadder.

 

Can't read the obit, so I have no idea if he was related to Mavis Ranson, uncredited passenger in A Night To Remember and a schoolgirl in the pilot of Doctor Who, but possible?

His obit only mentions a wife, Jenny and a son, Sam.

He died on March 12, aged 79.

[Ulitzer95 12,654]

On 29/12/2020 at 23:51, Ulitzer95 said:

Wasn't quite sure where to put this, but thought we were overdue a masterlist for British television actors so went through a list of UK TV shows of the 60s–90s earlier and singled out all the actors turning 90+ in 2021. Vast majority of these names will obit for sure:

*snip*
Raymond Mason (IMDb, b. 1924) Z-Cars; The Two Ronnies; The Bill
*snip*

Actor Raymond Mason (IMDb) died just one day shy of his 98th birthday as per Times death notice (paywalled, but see spoiler).
 

Spoiler

MASON Raymond, jobbing actor (his Tweedledee was a double triumph), died peacefully on 16th April 2022 after a very long run aged 97 years, 364 days. Will be much missed by sons Ben, Joe and Matt, and grandchildren Harry, Poppy and Archie.

[YoungWillz 21,058]

On 18/02/2021 at 00:11, Octopus of Odstock said:

Apologies if this has been posted before but there's a tweet from Richard Briers' daughter marking the anniversary of his death. She refers to Mum who has Alzheimer's. Mum, of course, is Ann Davies, who was an actress in her own right. As Lucy is also an actress, I would think it likely Davies would get some kind of qualifying obituary.

 

 

Ann Davies has died according to her agent: 

DDP Pick and there had better be a QO. British press have been excellent this year in recognising our brightest and best.

 

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0203582/

[msc 18,476]

36 minutes ago, YoungWillz said:

Ann Davies has died according to her agent: 

DDP Pick and there had better be a QO. British press have been excellent this year in recognising our brightest and best.

 

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0203582/

 

DDP pick for my theme team, in fact.

 

I'll admit that I think Dalek Invasion of Earth is the only thing I've seen her in, off the top of my head.