fiction.wikisort.org - Actor

Ballard Blascheck (6 August 1904 – 16 January 1988),[1] known professionally as Ballard Berkeley,[lower-alpha 1] was an English actor of stage and screen. He is best remembered for playing Major Gowen in the British television sitcom Fawlty Towers.

Ballard Berkeley
Berkeley as Major Gowen in Fawlty Towers
Born	Ballard Blascheck 6 August 1904 Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England
Died	16 January 1988 (aged 83) Westminster, London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1930–1988

Life and career

The son of Joseph and Beatrice Blascheck, he was born in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent.[1] He married Dorothy Long in 1929.[2] During the 1930s he performed regularly in the so-called "quota quickies". One of his earliest roles was as the heroic lead in the 1937 film The Last Adventurers.[3]

He served as a special constable with the Metropolitan Police during the Second World War, witnessing the Blitz at first hand,[4] including the bombing of the Café de Paris nightclub.[5] For his service he received the Defence Medal and the Special Constabulary Long Service Medal.^{[citation needed]}

He appeared in the film In Which We Serve (1942) and in the Hitchcock film Stage Fright (1950). He featured as Detective Inspector Berkeley in two episodes of Edgar Lustgarten's drama series, Scotland Yard: "Person Unknown" (1956), and "Bullet from the Past" (1957).

Berkeley played the role of bumbling Major Gowen in the BBC TV comedy Fawlty Towers,[6][7] and a similar role in the legal drama The Main Chance (1969). He portrayed another retired military man (Colonel Freddie Danby) in BBC Radio 4's The Archers, taking over the role from Norman Shelley.

He played a starring role in Fresh Fields as main character Hester's father Guy, was Hartley in To the Manor Born and played Colonel Culpepper in Terry and June. He had small roles in an episode of Citizen Smith (1977), an adaptation of Little Lord Fauntleroy (1980), and appeared once in Bless This House as a Royal Air Force Group Captain in the episode "Strangers in the Night" (1972), and in The New Avengers as Colonel Foster in the episode "Dirtier by the Dozen". He also had small roles in the BBC sitcoms Hi-de-Hi! ("Empty Saddles," 1983) and Are You Being Served? ("Memories Are Made of This," 1983).

He made a brief appearance in the 1985 American film National Lampoon's European Vacation which starred Chevy Chase. In this film, Berkeley played a British man who is involved in a minor road accident with the Griswalds.

Berkeley later performed the role of Winston—a similar character to "The Major"—in the radio comedy Wrinkles by Doug Naylor and Rob Grant. He played Badedas the Blue, a wizard in the radio comedy series Hordes of the Things. His last role was as the Head of the Army in the animated film version of Roald Dahl's The BFG. Berkeley died in London on 16 January 1988, and the film was released on 25 December 1989.

Selected filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1930	The Chinese Bungalow	Richard Marquess
1930	London Melody	Jan Moor
1933	Trouble		Uncredited
1934	White Ensign	Cortez
1936	East Meets West	Nazim
1937	The Last Adventurers	Fred Devlin
1937	Jennifer Hale	Richard Severn
1939	The Outsider		Uncredited
1939	Dead Men are Dangerous	Franklin's publisher's partner	Uncredited
1939	The Gang's All Here	Detective in Nightclub	Uncredited
1939	Black Eyes	Diner
1939	The Saint in London	Sir Richard Blake
1940	The Flying Squad	Smuggler in Aeroplane	Uncredited
1942	In Which We Serve	Engineer Commander
1946	Quiet Weekend	Jim Brent
1947	They Made Me a Fugitive	Rockliffe
1949	Third Time Lucky	Bertram
1950	Stage Fright	Sergeant Mellish
1951	Blackmailed	Dr. McCormick
1951	The Long Dark Hall	Police Supt. Maxey
1951	Mister Drake's Duck	Maj. Deans
1952	The Frightened Man	Inspector Bligh
1952	The Lost Hours	Doctor
1952	The Night Won't Talk	Inspector West
1952	Circumstantial Evidence	Det. Insp. Hall
1953	Three Steps to the Gallows	Insp. Haley
1953	The Blue Parrot	Supt. Chester
1953	Operation Diplomat	Inspector Austin
1954	The Weak and the Wicked	Police Detective	Uncredited
1954	Dangerous Cargo	Security Officer Findley
1954	Forbidden Cargo	Cooper	Uncredited
1954	Delayed Action	Insp. Crane
1954	Child's Play	Dr. Nightingale
1954	The Men of Sherwood Forest	Walter
1955	See How They Run	Col. Warrington
1955	The Stolen Airliner	Mr. Head
1955	Passport to Treason	Inspector Thredgold
1956	My Teenage Daughter	Magistrate
1957	The Betrayal	Lawson
1957	Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst	Lt. Col. Dewar-Durie
1957	After the Ball	Andrews
1957	Just My Luck	Starter at Goodwood	Uncredited
1957	Night of the Demon	1st Reporter	Uncredited
1958	The Man Who Wouldn't Talk	Court Clerk	Uncredited
1958	Chain of Events
1958	Further Up the Creek	Whacker Payne
1960	Life Is a Circus
1960	Cone of Silence	Commissioner
1963	Impact	Bill MacKenzie
1963	A Matter of Choice	Charles Grant
1965	The Murder Game	Sir Colin Chalmers
1965	Night Caller from Outer Space	Cmdr. Savage
1968	Hostile Witness	Clerk of Court
1970	The Weekend Murders	Peter, the butler
1972	Bless This House	RAF officer on train
1976	Confessions of a Driving Instructor	Lord Snodley
1978	The Playbirds	Trainer
1979	Confessions from the David Galaxy Affair	Judge
1979	Queen of the Blues	Uncle Fred
1980	The Wildcats of St Trinian's	Humphry Wills
1980	Little Lord Fauntleroy	Sir Harry
1983	Bullshot	Hotel Guest
1985	National Lampoon's European Vacation	Second English Motorist
1989	The BFG	Head of the Army	Voice; posthumous release

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1958	Leave It to Todhunter	Det. Chief Insp. Moresby
1959	The Invisible Man	Manton	episode: " Play to Kill"
1961	Deadline Midnight	Desmond	7 episodes
1964	Swizzlewick	Major Lamb
1966	United!	Dr Newkes
1967–1968	The Newcomers	Colonel Renshaw
1972	The Shadow of the Tower	Sir Thomas Tyrrel	episode: " A Fly in the Ointment"
1972–1980	The Dick Emery Show	Various characters	6 episodes
1975–1979	Fawlty Towers	Major Gowen	12 episodes
1981	To The Manor Born	Hartley	episode: "Connections in High Places"
1982–1987	Terry and June	Sir Arthur Forster-Carter / Colonel Culpepper	episodes: "Swingtime" / "They Also Serve"
1983	Are You Being Served?	Angler	episode: "Memories Are Made of This"
1984–1986	Fresh Fields	Guy Penrose	10 episodes

References

Notes

External links

• Ballard Berkeley at IMDb
• Ballard Berkeley at Find a Grave

На других языках

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- [en] Ballard Berkeley

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[es] Ballard Berkeley

Ballard Berkeley (Margate, Kent, 6 de agosto de 1904 – Londres, 16 de enero de 1988) fue un actor británico de teatro, radio, televisión y cine. Recordado internacionalmente por su papel como el Mayor Gowen en la serie cómica Fawlty Towers.

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