An English actor, the quintessential Englishman of the old school, restrained, gallant, handsome, whose most famous role was as the doctor Alec Harvey in the 1945 David Lean and Noël Coward film Brief Encounter, opposite Celia Johnson.
He was born in 1916 in Cliftonville in Kent, and died in 1988. At first a theatrical actor, trained at RADA and appearing on stage from 1934, his film début was Carol Reed's 1944 The Way Ahead, after he had been invalided out of the Royal Artillery. Other films included (this is not complete):
- They Made Me a Fugitive (dir. Alberto Cavalcanti, 1947)
- The Passionate Friends (dir. David Lean, 1949)
- The Third Man (dir. Carol Reed, 1949)
- Odette (dir. Herbert Wilcox, 1951)
- The Cockleshell Heroes (dir. Jose Ferrer, 1955)
- Sons and Lovers (dir. Jack Cardiff, 1960) - nominated for Oscar for Best Actor
- Mutiny on the Bounty (dir. Lewis Milestone, 1962) - he played Captain Bligh
- Von Ryan's Express (dir. Mark Robson, 1965)
- The Charge of the Light Brigade (dir. Tony Richardson, 1968) - he played Lord Cardigan
- Battle of Britain (dir. Guy Hamilton, 1969)
- Ryan's Daughter (dir. David Lean, 1970)
- Ludwig (dir. Luchino Visconti, 1973) - he played Richard Wagner
- The Count of Monte Cristo (dir. David Greene, 1975)
- Superman (dir. Richard Donner, 1978)
- Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (dir. Steve Roberts, 1980)
- The Sea Wolves (dir. Andrew McLaglen, 1980)
- The Missionary (dir. Richard Loncraine, 1982)
- Shaka Zulu (dir. William Faure, 1986)