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Colin Gordon

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This article is about the British actor. For the Guyanese high-jumper, see Colin Gordon (athlete). For the English footballer and sports agent, see Colin Gordon (footballer).
For the Jamaican cricketer, see Colin Gordon (cricketer).

Colin Gordon (27 April 1911 – 4 October 1972) was a British actor born in Ceylon.[1]

Colin Gordon
Born(1911-04-27)27 April 1911
Ceylon
Died4 October 1972(1972-10-04) (aged 61)
Haslemere, Surrey, England, UK
OccupationActor
Years active1934–1972
Spouse(s)Sidney Eileen Short (1936–1943; divorced, 1 child)
Zena Howard (1945–unknown; separated)

Biography

He was educated at Marlborough College and Christ Church, Oxford. He made his first West End appearance in 1934 as the hind legs of a horse in a production of Toad of Toad Hall. From 1936 to 1939 he was a director with the Fred Melville Repertory Company in Brixton. He served in the army during the Second World War for six years.

Film career

Gordon had a long career in British cinema and television from the 1940s to the 1970s, often playing government officials. His films include The Pink Panther and Casino Royale (both with Peter Sellers, alongside whom he made five films). In the ITC series The Prisoner (1967) he portrayed Number Two twice, in "A. B. and C." and later in "The General".[2]

Gordon was a regular in another ITC production, The Baron, playing civil servant Templeton-Green opposite Steve Forrest.[3] He also played the host and occasional narrator of the 1969 London Weekend Television series The Complete and Utter History of Britain, which arose from a pre-Monty Python collaboration between Michael Palin and Terry Jones; and was the Airport Commandant in the 1967 Doctor Who story The Faceless Ones.[4][5] He was also in Bachelor Father and made two notable guest appearances in Steptoe and Son, once in "The Holiday" and again in the 1972 episode "Live Now, P.A.Y.E Later" as a tax inspector whom Harold and Albert manage to get drunk when he calls with a query about the old man's income tax return. In 1961 he appeared as the Doctor in "The Lift" episode of Hancock's Half Hour.[6] In 1970 he appeared in the UFO episode The Cat with Ten Lives. He also appeared as Walpole Gibb in the ATV/ITC series Hine in 1971. He played the part of Walpole Gibb.

Selected filmography

References

  1. ^ "Colin Gordon". BFI.
  2. ^ "Colin Gordon - Movies and Filmography". AllMovie.
  3. ^ Terrace, Vincent (10 January 2014). Encyclopedia of Television Shows, 1925 through 2010, 2d ed. McFarland. ISBN 9780786486410 – via Google Books.
  4. ^ "BFI Screenonline: Complete and Utter History of Britain, The (1969)". www.screenonline.org.uk.
  5. ^ "BBC - Doctor Who Classic Episode Guide - The Faceless Ones - Details". www.bbc.co.uk.
  6. ^ "The Lift (1961)". BFI.
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