Favourite reliably typecast actors

[Gurke and Hare]

I was watching an episode of The Bill the other day and there was someone I half recognised in it at the start, so I loaded the cast on IMDB to check out who they were and noticed that David Bamber was in the episode. Shortly after that one of the PCs got a radio call to attend an incident involving a man complaining about children playing football near his home. No prizes for guessing whether or not that was the David Bamber character.

Milton Johns is another good one - I can't do better than Wikipedia which describes him as "an English actor whose thin features and talent for obsequious or oily characters has often influenced the many television parts he has received".

Who else?

[timebug]

It was 'folklore' among our gang as we grew up, that a Hammer Film wasn't really a Hammer Film, if it didn't have Michael Ripper playing the landlord of the village inn/ the dodgy coach driver/ the mayor of the village etc. A character actor who was always reliable in however small a part he was given, he was a legend to us!

[studpuppet]

The tale of two Griffiths: Hugh and Kenneth. The one with the eyebrows always played devious mad professors/magistrates/blokes in the pub, while the other one played very strident but slightly befuddled parts (Romans/judges/the wedding guest in Four Weddings & A Funeral).

 

[Inspector Norse]

I was watching an episode of The Bill the other day and there was someone I half recognised in it at the start, so I loaded the cast on IMDB to check out who they were and noticed that David Bamber was in the episode. Shortly after that one of the PCs got a radio call to attend an incident involving a man complaining about children playing football near his home. No prizes for guessing whether or not that was the David Bamber character.

Milton Johns is another good one - I can't do better than Wikipedia which describes him as "an English actor whose thin features and talent for obsequious or oily characters has often influenced the many television parts he has received".

Who else?

I seem to remember David Bamber was also in HBO's Rome playing Cicero - one of the greatest political, legal and linguistic minds in history - as a whiny, cringy self-serving tosser.

[Inspector Norse]

One bloke whose appearances always get a chuckle is Lance Reddick, a man you simply cannot imagine having an actual life beyond playing gruff, by-the-book, uniformed authority figures with a surprising tendency to give maverick subordinates a bit of leeway. I get the impression that he runs his own household by calling the kids in for meetings in his study and warning them for overspending or slacking off with their chores, but then letting them have a biscuit even though they didn't finish their dinner, because they drank some juice earlier.

[Norton Canes]

Saw a fantastic blog a little while ago which listed dozens of the most familiar 70's/80's character actors. Can't remember the link but I think it was called something like 'Oh, Isn't That...?'


[edit: ah no, here we go: Familiar Unknown]

[lebowskibukowski]

I seem to remember that Gary Whelan was the go-to actor for 'inspector-level policeman' in absolutely everything in the 90's.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Ballard Berkeley's imdb

https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0075326/filmotype/actor?ref_=m_nmfm_1

Duke x 1
Commander x 3
Detective x 4
Sir x 11
Sergeant x 1
Superintendent x 2
Major x 7
Doctor x 9
Inspector x 8
Lieutenant Colonel x 1
Colonel x 14
QC x 1
Count x 1
Commissioner x 3
Constable x 1
Lord x 4
General x 1

[Norton Canes]

Jeanette Charles' imdb:

Monarch x 28
Other x 2
Not specified but let's face it, we know don't we: 2

[Absorb the anus burn]

Ballard Berkeley's imdb

https://m.imdb.com/name/nm0075326/filmotype/actor?ref_=m_nmfm_1

Duke x 1
Commander x 3
Detective x 4
Sir x 11
Sergeant x 1
Superintendent x 2
Major x 7
Doctor x 9
Inspector x 8
Lieutenant Colonel x 1
Colonel x 14
QC x 1
Count x 1
Commissioner x 3
Constable x 1
Lord x 4
General x 1

Ha, ha! Brilliant... Ballard was on TV twice last night (at the same time) playing a Major in Fawlty Towers on BBC1 and a Major (and part time park paedo) in The Main Chance on Talking Pictures TV.

The Main Chance also featured John Arnatt:



Who cornered the market in coppers and private detectives (Whistle Down The Wind / CFF films etc).

[Norton Canes]

And was the best Borusa

[Magnum Valentino]

It was 'folklore' among our gang as we grew up, that a Hammer Film wasn't really a Hammer Film, if it didn't have Michael Ripper playing the landlord of the village inn/ the dodgy coach driver/ the mayor of the village etc. A character actor who was always reliable in however small a part he was given, he was a legend to us!

Yes! Ripper has a great childlike face and is welcome any time he pops up.

[jamiefairlie]

Richard Wattis as an English civil servant, guarantees a comforting 80 minutes of light black and white fun.

[Jim_MacLaine]

The very dry David Battley was always good value.





And the original Rutle Paul in RWT

[Small Man Big Horse]

One bloke whose appearances always get a chuckle is Lance Reddick, a man you simply cannot imagine having an actual life beyond playing gruff, by-the-book, uniformed authority figures with a surprising tendency to give maverick subordinates a bit of leeway. I get the impression that he runs his own household by calling the kids in for meetings in his study and warning them for overspending or slacking off with their chores, but then letting them have a biscuit even though they didn't finish their dinner, because they drank some juice earlier.

He's absolutely superb in Corporate as the ultimate in self-obsessed, quite possibly demented CEO's, and for that role alone I shall love him for the rest of my existence.

[DrGreggles]

Michael Redfern
Copper



or gravy

[Rizla]

Saw a fantastic blog a little while ago which listed dozens of the most familiar 70's/80's character actors. Can't remember the link but I think it was called something like 'Oh, Isn't That...?'


[edit: ah no, here we go: Familiar Unknown]

Brilliant
DEREK MARTIN That's who that was on the Sweeney episode I watched last night, was doing my head in. Bloke off 'stenders.

[Ignatius_S]

Milton Johns is another good one - I can't do better than Wikipedia which describes him as "an English actor whose thin features and talent for obsequious or oily characters has often influenced the many television parts he has received".

Also, absolutely fantastic in sinister roles. I recently watched The Mind of Mr. J. G. Reeder and Johns put in a particularly unhinged performance as the villain in one episode.

[sevendaughters]

need a batty gran?



call Rita May!

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Abrasive hard- bitten no- nonsense usually Welsh woman?

Her from " The Thick Of It", collaring the factory- visiting minister Chris Langham  , going on about having to clean up her mum's piss. Can't be fucked with googling her, but she's done that character in quite a few  shows.

A young David Bamber can be espied in a  1986 episode of the Andrew Davies- scripted Campus Satire " A Very Peculiar Practice". Initially disconcerting to witness his relative youth, but the creepy sweets- loving academic type he plays is very much the part he made his own.

Joan Fucking Sanderson.

Top Alison Goldfrapp lookalike Josephine Tewson.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Bruce Boa as American Man In England.

[jobotic]

Familiar Unknown is my friend's blog. I'll let know people are enjoying it!

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Familiar Unknown is my friend's blog. I'll let know people are enjoying it!

Good to see Dicken Ashworth in there. He left a starring role in " Brookside" ( which had him married to a jolly attractive younger woman) because, ironically, he " didn't want to be tylecast", did 't he?

The recently departed Damaris Hayman in there too, quite rightly so. Along with Michael Redfern, one of  the bit- part thespians favoured by Elton, Mayall and Edmonson

" Do you dig graves? "

" Excuse me, are you mad?"

[Ignatius_S]

The tale of two Griffiths: Hugh and Kenneth. The one with the eyebrows always played devious mad professors/magistrates/blokes in the pub, while the other one played very strident but slightly befuddled parts (Romans/judges/the wedding guest in Four Weddings & A Funeral).

My dad was friends with Kenneth for quite a few years and recounts that they were at a funeral together, when someone came up to them to say he had seen Four Weddings, thought Griffith was good in it and "wasn't it was wonderful the way you remembered all those lines."

Griffith's response was "Wonderful I remembered my lines? What do you think I am? Fucking senile or something?" Alas, there was no answer as the interloper beat a hasty retreat.

Although he was good in the kind of roles you mentioned, wouldn't say he was typecast and played a wide variety of characters.

[Ambient Sheep]

Colin Jeavons.

An always-reliable devious slimeball.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Colin Jeavons.

An always-reliable devious slimeball.

He'll always be Shadrack in the telly version of " Billy Liar" to me ( featuring Jeff Rawle  as our eponymous hero ; does he belong in this category? George A. Cooper as his dad certainly does)

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

For Our American Readers: Norman Fell.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Royce Mills ( although you could argue he's had some quite varied roles; he was the voice of a dalek in the same 1984 episode of " Dr. Who" that had Rodney Bewes in it, for example).

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Also for our American Readers: Jean Smart. Sub- Sarandon sassy slightly older female parts in comedies a speciality ( must have been the fist name that came to the casting director's mind for that role in " Frasier".)

Last saw her playing a more mature, patriarchal part in that series of " Fargo".

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

That Familiar Unknown is a blummin' good read, but  one or two entries seem a little harsh.

The recently departed Nicola Pagett, for example; she was actually quite a well established actress, and had a couple of leading roles in her time. I mean, as long as you're going down that route, you may as well claim that Her Who Plays Villanelle deserves a place in this category, haplessly typecast as Massively Fit Bit Of Crumpet.