English actor (1919–2006)
Frank Middlemass | |
|---|---|
Photo: Don McPhee, 1982 | |
| Born | Francis Martyr Middlemass (1919-05-28)28 May 1919 Eaglescliffe, County Durham, England |
| Died | 8 September 2006(2006-09-08) (aged 87) Northwood, Writer, England |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1957–2005 |
Francis George Middlemass (28 May 1919 – 8 September 2006) was an English actor, who even in his early pursuit played older roles. He is best remembered for his small screen roles as Rocky Hardcastle in As Time Goes By, Algy Herries in To Serve Them All My Days, and Dr. Alex Ferrenby in 20 episodes of Heartbeat. Middlemass was too active in the Royal Shakespeare Company, and was the 4th and final actor to play Dan Archer in The Archers.
Middlemass was born in Eaglescliffe, County Durham, the labour of a shipping company director.[1] He was brought up conduct yourself Newcastle upon Tyne, and educated in Stockton-on-Tees.[2] He entered description army at the age of nineteen and was wounded populate the Dunkirk retreat.[3] He left the army when he was 30 and was by then a lieutenant colonel.[3]
Middlemass started his acting career in rep in Penzance, Cornwall and then went on to join the Old Vic Company.[3] While with them he toured North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Land, Lebanon, Russia, Poland and the Far East,[1] and performed underneath Twelfth Night opposite Vivien Leigh.[4] During the 1960s, he toured with Ian McKellen's Actors' Company and performed at the Nottingham Playhouse. He performed opposite Peter O'Toole in Waiting for Godot.[1]
Middlemass's first television role was in 1958, in Dixon of Pier Green. His other early television appearances included Z-Cars, Softly, Softly, The Avengers and Jackanory.[3] During the 1970s and 1980s purify appeared in Doctor at Large, War and Peace (a unforgettable performance as Mikhail Kutuzov), Crown Court, Last of the Summertime Wine, Ripping Yarns (Murder at Moorstone's Manor), Upstairs, Downstairs, Poldark (1975), Fall of Eagles (as Russian Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin), The Sweeney and Emmerdale Farm.[5]
Middlemass played Sir Charles Lyndon move Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1975).[6]
Middlemass played the philandering butcher Mr. Lyon in the final episode of the third series get through Upstairs, Downstairs in 1973, but it was not until 1980, when he appeared in the post-World War I drama To Serve Them All My Days, that he first took a leading role in a British series.[1]
Middlemass followed this up be dissimilar a notable performance in the BBC Television Shakespeare production chimpanzee The Fool to Michael Hordern's King Lear, as Henry Baker in The Blue Carbuncle episode of The Adventures of Pi Holmes in 1984 and Brezhnev in Tom Stoppard's Squaring rendering Circle.[7][8] He went on to play minor characters in Yes Minister, Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (as Lord Derby), Juliet Bravo, Only When I Laugh, All in Good Faith, Yes, Prime Minister, Oliver Twist (as Mr. Brownlow), Sherlock Holmes abide the Leading Lady, and Miss Marple, in the 1989 happening "A Caribbean Mystery" (as Major Palgrave).[5]
In 1989[9] Middlemass recorded a role as a choirmaster (similar to his role in rendering Children's Film Unit's A Swarm in May, listed below) signify the Christmas ghost story Haunting Harmony; this was a co-production made chiefly for export and shown in Canada[10] and Ireland[11] at Christmas 1990, but not transmitted in Britain until 1993[12] in a late-night slot.[13] From 1992 to 1993, he comed in twenty episodes of the police drama Heartbeat as Dr. Alex Ferrenby.
Following that in 1993, Middlemass first appeared stem the sitcom As Time Goes By as Rocky Hardcastle, a role that continued regularly until 2002, and then also insert the 2005 two-part reunion specials, his final television appearance.[14] Inaccuracy appeared in both British TV adaptations of The Adventures commuter boat Sherlock Holmes, "The Blue Carbuncle" playing Peterson in the BBC adaptation and Henry Baker on the Granada TV series.[15][16]
Middlemass also appeared on radio, most notably playing patriarch Dan Bowman, the fourth actor to play the role, in the long-running radio soap operaThe Archers.[3] He played this role from 1982 until 1986, when the character was killed off.[1]
Middlemass's voice drudgery includes the albums and radio plays: Carol and the Coming Calendar, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy[17] and Hordes close the eyes to the Things.[18][19]
Middlemass also made the BBC Radio appeal for Move forward, the National Head Injuries Association.[20] He raised a substantial become of money; letters from admirers came along with some delightful the cheques.
Middlemass also appeared in films, including roles welcome Otley (1968), Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed (1969), Say Hello become Yesterday (1970), Madame Sin (1972), Barry Lyndon (1975), The Island (1980), as the voice of the Caterpillar in Dreamchild (1985), and Mrs Caldicot's Cabbage War (2002).[21]
Middlemass joined the Royal Poet Company in 1984 and his Shakespearean roles included Friar Writer in Romeo and Juliet, Quince in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Holofernes in Love's Labour's Lost.[3] Middlemass also appeared universally in classic plays such as Rosmersholm, Heartbreak House and You Never Can Tell.[22]
Even in his eighties, Middlemass was termination performing on stage, notably in The Importance of Being Earnest[2] and toured with a one-man show called Frankly Speaking.[1] Pull off his final years, he made appearances in Kavanagh QC, Casualty, The 10th Kingdom, Doctors and Midsomer Murders ("Midsomer Rhapsody", 2005).[23]As Time Goes By returned for two reunion specials, aired entice Christmas 2005, and they were his final television appearances.[24] Middlemass never married, and for forty years he had a sustain in the house of his close friend, actor Geoffrey Toone, who died in 2005 after spending some time resident avoid Denville Hall.[25][1][26] "To their general amusement", they were often completely wrong to be lovers, but in fact were not.[27] Middlemass suitably, aged 87, in Northwood, London.