George Edward Cole, OBE (born ,
TootingTooting is a suburb in the London Borough of Wandsworth in south London. It is south south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
In an interview included in the 2007 DVD release of A Christmas Carol he recounts that he was given up for adoption at the age of ten days, and adopted by Mr and Mrs George Cole. He grew up with a strong Cockney accent that hindered his early performing career.
He began appearing in films in the early 1940s, debuting in the 1941 film
Cottage to LetCottage to Let is a 1941 spy film starring Leslie Banks, Alastair Sim and John Mills. In World War II Scotland, Nazi spies try to kidnap an inventor.-Plot:...
.
George Edward Cole, OBE (born ,
TootingTooting is a suburb in the London Borough of Wandsworth in south London. It is south south-west of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...
) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
actorAn actor or actress is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
.
In an interview included in the 2007 DVD release of A Christmas Carol he recounts that he was given up for adoption at the age of ten days, and adopted by Mr and Mrs George Cole. He grew up with a strong Cockney accent that hindered his early performing career.
He began appearing in films in the early 1940s, debuting in the 1941 film
Cottage to LetCottage to Let is a 1941 spy film starring Leslie Banks, Alastair Sim and John Mills. In World War II Scotland, Nazi spies try to kidnap an inventor.-Plot:...
. He attributes his career to the British stage and film actor
Alastair SimAlastair Sim, CBE was a Scottish character actor who appeared in a string of classic British films. He is best remembered in the role of Ebenezer Scrooge in the 1951 film Scrooge, and for his portrayal of Miss Fritton, the headmistress in two of the much-loved St. Trinian's films...
, who became his mentor. Cole appeared in a total of 11 films with Sim, starting with
Cottage to Let, and ending with the somewhat obscure 1961 independent film
The Anatomist. He also acted opposite
Laurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, along with his contemporaries John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft, Alec Guinness and Ralph Richardson...
in
The Demi-ParadiseThe Demi-Paradise is a 1943 comedy film made by Two Cities Films and distributed in the U.S. by Universal Pictures. It starred Laurence Olivier as a Soviet inventor who travels to England to have his revolutionary propeller manufactured, and Penelope Dudley Ward as the woman who falls in love with...
(1943) and Olivier's film version of
Henry VHenry V is a 1944 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name. The on-screen title is The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France . It stars Laurence Olivier, who also directed. The play was adapted for the screen by Olivier,...
(1944), but his career was interrupted by his service in the
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
from 1944 to 1947.
He became familiar to audiences in
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
comedy films in the 1950s. Cole appeared with Sim in
ScroogeScrooge , released as A Christmas Carol in the U.S., is one of the best-known film adaptations of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. It starred Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge and was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley.The film also features Kathleen Harrison in...
(as the young Scrooge) in 1951, but his best known film role was as "
Flash HarryFlash Harry is a fictional character from the St. Trinian's series of films who first appears in the 1954 The Belles of St Trinian's. The term refers to "an ostentatious, loudly-dressed, and usually ill-mannered man", who may also be a spiv...
" in the
St Trinian'sSt Trinian's is a fictional girls' boarding school, the creation of English cartoonist Ronald Searle, that later became the subject of a popular series of comedy films....
films (two of which also star Sim).
Cole later became a respected television actor. During the 1960s and 1970s, he played numerous character parts on British television, usually as a disturbed and/or pathetic villain or victim. The television series he appeared in included
Gideon's WayGideon's Way was a British TV crime series made by ITC Entertainment in 1964/65, based on the novels by John Creasey . The series was made at Elstree in twin production with The Saint TV series...
('The Firebug', 1965),
Out of the UnknownOut of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was an independent dramatisation of a separate science fiction short story...
('The Last Lonely Man', 1969),
UFOUFO is a British television science fiction series created by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson and produced by the Anderson's and Lew Grade's Century 21 Productions for Grade's ITC Entertainment company...
('Flight Path', 1969) and
Menace ('Killing Time', 1970). He also starred in the big screen movie
Take Me HighTake Me High is a 1973 English feature film, directed by David Askey, written by Christopher Penfold and starring Cliff Richard, with Deborah Watling, Hugh Griffith, George Cole and Anthony Andrews....
alongside
Cliff RichardSir Cliff Richard OBE is a British singer-songwriter and entrepreneur.With his backing group The Shadows, Richard dominated the British popular music scene in the late 1950s and early 1960s, before and during The Beatles' first year in the charts...
and
Deborah WatlingDeborah Watling is a British actress best known for her role as Victoria Waterfield, a companion of the Second Doctor in the BBC television series Doctor Who...
.
His most memorable television role was as crooked used car dealer Arthur Daley in the
Thames TelevisionThames Television was a licensee of the British ITV television network, covering London and parts of the surrounding counties on weekdays from 30 July 1968 until 31 December 1992. It was both a broadcaster and a producer of television programmes, making shows both for the local region it covered...
series
MinderMinder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld. Initially produced by Verity Lambert, it was made by Euston Films, a subsidiary of Thames Television and shown on ITV...
(1979-94). The character became synonymous with the down-at-heel side of 1980s capitalism (along with Del Trotter of
Only Fools and HorsesOnly Fools and Horses is a British television sitcom, created and written by John Sullivan, and made and broadcast by the BBC. Seven series were originally broadcast on BBC One in the United Kingdom between 1981 and 1991, with sporadic Christmas specials until 2003.Set in Peckham in south London,...
). Cole played a similar character in late 1980s / early 1990s TV advertisements for the
Leeds Permanent Building SocietyThe Leeds Permanent Building Society was a building society founded in Leeds, England in 1846 and was commonly known in a shortened form as The Leeds...
who was "Laughing all the way to The Leeds". In 1988 he voiced Vernon the mouse in the
Children's ITVCITV is the brand name used for the majority of children's television output on ITV's television stations, including the ITV Network, breakfast broadcaster GMTV and the ITV plc-owned CITV Channel as well as non ITV plc owned regions...
cartoon
Tube MiceTube Mice is a children's animated series produced in 1988 about the adventures of mice who dwell in the tunnels of the London Underground.The series was produced by Honeycomb Animation, and was created by Sarah and Simon Bor.- Overview :...
(in which
Minder co-star
Dennis WatermanDennis Waterman is an English actor and singer, best known for his tough-guy roles in television series such as The Sweeney and Minder...
also voiced a character).
Cole also played Henry Root in the TV series
Root Into EuropeRoot Into Europe was an ITV comedy-drama written by William Donaldson and Mark Chapman, which ran for 5 episodes between May 17 and June 14 1992...
in 1992.
In 1995–1996 he starred as businessman-councillor Freddie Patterson in
An Independent Man. He also starred as Brian Hook in the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
Comedy
DadDad is a BBC1 sitcom that ran for 13 episodes over two series and a Christmas special. Described by the BBC as a 'generation-gap comedy', it starred George Cole as Brian Hook, Kevin McNally as his son Alan Hook, and Toby Ross-Bryant as his son Vincent Hook and Julia Hills as his wife Beryl Hook...
in the late 1990s alongside
Kevin McNallyKevin McNally is an English actor who has worked in theatre and radio extensively in film and television.Born in Bristol, McNally spent his early years in Birmingham, attending Redhill Junior School on Redhill Road in Hay Mills and Mapledene Junior School on Mapledene Road in Sheldon...
, who played his son, Alan Hook.
He is able to hide his London accent when playing upper-class characters, such as Sir Giles Lynchwood in the TV adaptation of
Tom SharpeTom Sharpe is an English satirical author, born in London and educated at Elmhurst School for Boys, Lancing College and Pembroke College, Cambridge...
's novel
Blott on the LandscapeBlott on the Landscape is a novel written in 1975 by Tom Sharpe. It was adapted into a 6-part television series, made by the BBC, in 1985.-Plot:...
. Recently he was announced to play the leading role in Kevin Tate's
The Story of Carl Veart, a new 6-part ITV series. Cole recently appeared in the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
drama
A Class Apart, in which he played a grandfather who encourages his impoverished daughter keep her son on the straight and narrow by means of a public school bursary (part of the Winter/Spring 2007 season), and
The Dinner Party, broadcast in September 2007.
He was married first to Eileen Moore, an actress and subsequently to Penny Morrell, in 1964, with whom he has two children.
Partial filmography
- Cottage to Let
Cottage to Let is a 1941 spy film starring Leslie Banks, Alastair Sim and John Mills. In World War II Scotland, Nazi spies try to kidnap an inventor.-Plot:...
(1941)
- Those Kids from Town (1942)
- The Demi-Paradise
The Demi-Paradise is a 1943 comedy film made by Two Cities Films and distributed in the U.S. by Universal Pictures. It starred Laurence Olivier as a Soviet inventor who travels to England to have his revolutionary propeller manufactured, and Penelope Dudley Ward as the woman who falls in love with...
(1943)
- Henry V
Henry V is a 1944 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name. The on-screen title is The Chronicle History of King Henry the Fift with His Battell Fought at Agincourt in France . It stars Laurence Olivier, who also directed. The play was adapted for the screen by Olivier,...
(1944)
- Journey Together (1946)
- My Brother's Keeper (1948)
- Quartet
Quartet is a British anthology film with four segments, each based on a story by W. Somerset Maugham. Each segment is introduced by the author. It was successful enough to produce two sequels Trio and Encore , and popularised the compendium film format, leading to films such as O...
(1948)
- The Spider and the Fly (1949)
- The Happiest Days of Your Life
The Happiest Days of Your Life is a 1950 British comedy film directed by Frank Launder, based on the play by John Dighton. The two also wrote the screenplay...
(1950)
- Gone to Earth
Gone to Earth is a film by the British-based director-writer team of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. It stars Jennifer Jones, David Farrar and Cyril Cusack and features Esmond Knight. The film was significantly changed for the American market by David O...
(1950)
- Morning Departure
Morning Departure is a 1950 British naval film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring John Mills, Nigel Patrick, Peter Hammond, George Cole, Bernard Lee and Richard Attenborough....
(1950)
- Laughter in Paradise
Laughter in Paradise is the title of a British comedy film released in 1951. The film stars Alastair Sim, Fay Compton, George Cole, and Guy Middleton...
(1951)
- Flesh & Blood (1951)
- Lady Godiva Rides Again
Lady Godiva Rides Again is a 1951 film starring Diana Dors, about a small-town English girl who wins a beauty contest and heads for greater fame. It features Joan Collins in her movie debut as an uncredited beauty contestant. It also featured Sid James in one of his first film roles and Ruth Ellis,...
(1951)
- Scrooge
Scrooge , released as A Christmas Carol in the U.S., is one of the best-known film adaptations of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol. It starred Alastair Sim as Ebenezer Scrooge and was directed by Brian Desmond Hurst, with a screenplay by Noel Langley.The film also features Kathleen Harrison in...
(1951)
- The Happy Family (1952)
- The Wild Heart (1952)
- Who Goes There! (1952)
- Top Secret
Top Secret generally refers to the highest acknowledged level of classified information.Top Secret or Top Secret! may also refer to:*Top Secret , codename for an experimental multiplayer online game collaboration...
(1952)
- Folly to Be Wise
Folly to be Wise is a 1953 British comedy film directed by Frank Launder and based on a play by James Bridie. It stars Alastair Sim, Elizabeth Allan, Roland Culver, Colin Gordon, Marita Hunt and Edward Chapman. The film follows a British Army Chaplain attempting to recruit entertainment acts to...
(1953)
- Our Girl Friday
Our Girl Friday is a 1953 comedy film starring Joan Collins, George Cole, Kenneth More and Robertson Hare...
(1953)
- Will any Gentlemen...? (1953)
- The Intruder
The Intruder is a 1953 film directed by Guy Hamilton and starring Jack Hawkins, George Cole, Dennis Price, George Baker and Hugh Williams.-External links:*...
(1953)
- The Clue of the Missing Ape (1953)
- The Belles of St Trinian's
The Belles of St Trinian's is a comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School, released in 1954. This film and its sequels were inspired by a series of cartoons by British cartoonist Ronald Searle....
(1954)
- An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls is a 1954 film directed by Guy Hamilton and written for the screen by Desmond Davis. It is based upon a play of the same name by J.B. Priestley...
(1954)
- Happy Ever After
Happy Ever after is a 1954 British comedy film directed by Mario Zampi and starring David Niven, Yvonne De Carlo, Barry Fitzgerald and George Cole. The accidental death of an Irish landowner, General O'Leary, leads his son to take over the running of the estate. It was released in the United States...
(1954)
- Where There's a Will (1955)
- A Prize of Gold
A Prize of Gold is a 1955 adventure film which follows an officer motivated by love and compassion to begin a life of crime.-Plot:Sergeant Joe Lawrence is an American Army officer who, while stationed in Berlin shortly after the end of World War II, falls in love with Maria , a refugee...
(1955)
- The Constant Husband
The Constant Husband is a 1955 British comedy film directed by Sidney Gilliat and starring Rex Harrison, Margaret Leighton, Kay Kendall, Cecil Parker, George Cole and Raymond Huntley.-Plot:...
(1955)
- The Adventures of Quentin Durward
The Adventures of Quentin Durward, known also as Quentin Durward, is a 1955 historical film released by MGM. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Pandro S. Berman...
(1955)
- The Green Man
The Green Man is a 1956 British comedy-drama film based on the play Meet A Body by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat, who produced and adapted the big-screen version.-Cast:*Alastair Sim as Harry Hawkins)*George Cole as William Blake...
(1956)
- Blue Murder at St Trinian's
Blue Murder at St Trinian's is British comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School.Directed by Frank Launder and written by him and Sidney Gilliat, it was the second of the series of four films with well-known British actors: Alastair Sim as Miss Fritton, George Cole as "Flash Harry",...
(1957)
- The Weapon (1957)
- Too Many Crooks
Too Many Crooks is a 1959 British comedy film about a bunch of inept crooks who kidnap the wrong woman. It stars George Cole as the leader of the gang, Brenda De Banzie as the victim, and Terry-Thomas as her husband...
(1959)
- The Bridal Path (1959)
- Don't Panic Chaps (1959)
- The Pure Hell of St Trinian's
The Pure Hell of St Trinian's was a 1960 British comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School.Directed by Frank Launder and written by him and Sidney Gilliat, it was the third in a series of four films with well-known British actors: George Cole as "Flash Harry", Cecil Parker as Professor...
(1960)
- The Anatomist (1961)
- Cleopatra
Cleopatra is a 1963 film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. The screenplay was adapted by Sidney Buchman, Ben Hecht, Ranald MacDougall, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz from a book by Carlo Mario Franzero. The film starred Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall and Martin Landau. The...
(1963)
- One Way Pendulum (1964)
- The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery
The Great St. Trinian's Train Robbery is a British comedy film set in the fictional St Trinian's School, released in 1966, three years after the historical Great Train Robbery had taken place...
(1966)
- The Green Shoes (1968)
- The Vampire Lovers
The Vampire Lovers is a 1970 British Hammer Horror film directed by Roy Ward Baker and starring Peter Cushing, Polish actress Ingrid Pitt, Madeline Smith and Kate O'Mara. It is based on the J. Sheridan Le Fanu novella Carmilla and is part of the so-called Karnstein Trilogy of films. Other films in...
(1970)
- Fright
Fright is a 1971 slasher film starring Susan George, Ian Bannen and Honor Blackman. A homicidal escapee from a mental asylum terrorizes a babysitter and her charge....
(1971)
- Take Me High
Take Me High is a 1973 English feature film, directed by David Askey, written by Christopher Penfold and starring Cliff Richard, with Deborah Watling, Hugh Griffith, George Cole and Anthony Andrews....
(1973)
- Gone in 60 Seconds
Gone in 60 Seconds is a 1974 action film written, directed, produced by and starring H.B 'Toby' Halicki. It centers on a group of car thieves and the 48 cars they must steal in a matter of days. The film is famous for having wrecked and destroyed 93 cars in a 34 minute car chase scene...
(1974)
- The Blue Bird
The Blue Bird is a 1976 American/Soviet fantasy film directed by George Cukor. The screenplay by Hugh Whitemore, Alfred Hayes, and Aleksei Kapler is based L'Oiseau bleu by Maurice Maeterlinck...
(1976)
- The Sweeney
The Sweeney is a British television police drama focusing on two members of the Flying Squad, an elite branch of the Metropolitan Police specialising in tackling armed robbery and violent crime in London...
(1976) [Series 3, Tomorrow Man]
- Deadline Auto Theft
Deadline Auto Theft is an 1983 independent film written and directed by H.B 'Toby' Halicki, made up of scenes from Gone In 60 Seconds and The Junkman, as well as new material featuring Hoyt Axton.- Plot Summary :...
(1983)
- Minder on the Orient Express
Minder on the Orient Express is a comedy/thriller television film made in 1985 as a spin-off from the successful television series Minder...
(1985) (TV)
- The End of Innocence
The End of Innocence is a semi-autobiographical film from 1990 that was directed by, was written by, and starred Dyan Cannon. The story concerns a young girl too concerned about pleasing others that she forgets to take care of herself.-Cast:...
(1990)
- Mary Reilly
Mary Reilly is a 1996 film directed by Stephen Frears. The movie was written by Christopher Hampton based on the novel Mary Reilly by Valerie Martin...
(1996)
- The Ghost of Greville Lodge (2000)
External links