(9 June 1924 - 22 December 2019)
The British actor Tony Britton, who has died aged 95, had a long career in which he mastered the art of stage acting, along with television appearances and film work. He was one of those actors who always seemed to be around, a reliable and very capable performer who could master serious drama and comedy with equal aplomb. After leaving school he was determined to become an actor, joining rep companies in Somerset while also working as an estate agent and at an aircraft factory. During National Service he formed a theatre group and worked at Manchester’s Library Theatre as well as in Edinburgh. He made his West End debut in 1952 and then joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. More West End work followed and then he entered films, while his television career also took off. His first film was an uncredited role in Waterfront (1950) with Robert Newton. Then came Cage of Gold with Jean Simmons and Salute the Toff with John Bentley. Then TV took over for most of the 1950s, including the Francis Durbridge serial The Other Man. His next film was Ken Annakin’s comedy Loser Takes All, with a rather lame script by Graham Greene. The Birthday Present (1957) was rather a good drama with Britton as a man who smuggles an expensive watch through customs. Behind the Mask was a hospital drama with Michael Redgrave, and Operation Amsterdam was an OK war film with Peter Finch. Other films included The Heart of a Man with Frankie Vaughan and The Rough and the Smooth with Najda Tiller. The Boulting Brothers made Suspect with a script by the novelist Nigel Balchin and Britton was in a few other minor flicks when TV took over again, demonstrating Britton’s subtle comedy technique in Happy Ever After, Ooh La La!, And Mother Makes Five, Robin’s Nest, Don’t Wait Up, etc. There were other TV series and some more films such as Disney’s Dr Syn, Alias the Scarecrow, There’s a Girl In My Soup, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Mr Forbush and the Penguins, The Day of the Jackal, Night Watch with Elizabeth Taylor, The People That Time Forgot with Patrick Wayne, Agatha with Vanessa Redgrave and Ray Cooney’s Run for Your Wife, Britton’s last film (in 2012). Tony Britton married and divorced Ruth Hawkins and then married the Danish sculptor Eva Skytte Birkefeldt, who died in 2008. He is the father of the TV presenter Fern Britton, the scriptwriter Cherry Britton and the actor Jasper Britton.
MICHAEL DARVELL
