Tony Britton

Anthony Edward Lowry Britton (9 June 1924 – 22 December 2019) was an English actor. He appeared in a variety of films (including The Day of the Jackal) and television sitcoms (including Don't Wait Up and Robin's Nest).

Background

Britton was born in Erdington, Birmingham, the son of Doris Marguerite (née Jones) and Edward Leslie Britton. His father was landlord of the Trocadero public house on Temple Street in Birmingham. He attended Edgbaston Collegiate School, Birmingham and Thornbury Grammar School, Gloucestershire. During the Second World War he served in the Army and he also worked for an estate agent and in an aircraft factory. He joined an amateur dramatics group in Weston-super-Mare and then turned professional, appearing on stage at the Old Vic and with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Career

He appeared in numerous British films from the 1950s onwards, including Operation Amsterdam (1959), Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and The Day of the Jackal (1973). Britton won the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Actor and was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor in 1975 for The Nearly Man.

He was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1977 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews outside London's Cafe Royal.

In 1979, Britton was nominated for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady at the Adelphi Theatre.

From 1983 to 1990, he starred with Nigel Havers and Dinah Sheridan in the BBC sitcom Don't Wait Up, which became a highlight of his career. His other sitcom appearances included ...And Mother Makes Five, Father, Dear Father and as James Nicholls in Robin's Nest. Britton recorded many audiobook versions of novels by Dick Francis.

In September 2013 Sir Jonathan Miller directed a Gala Performance of William Shakespeare's King Lear at the Old Vic in London. Britton played the Earl of Gloucester.

Personal life

Britton and his first wife Ruth (née Hawkins), to whom he was married from 1948 until divorcing in 1961, had two children, scriptwriter Cherry Britton and TV presenter Fern Britton. Cherry was married to children's TV presenter Brian Cant. Fern was married to Phil Vickery until 2020.

In 1962, Britton married Danish sculptor and wartime Danish resistance Eva Castle Britton (née Skytte Birkfeldt). They had one son, actor Jasper Britton.

Britton lived in Fiddington, Somerset, in his later years. He died in the London Borough of Hillingdon on 22 December 2019, at the age of 95.

Films

Waterfront (1950) as Deck-Hand (uncredited)
Cage of Gold (1950) as Nicky (uncredited)
Salute the Toff (1952) as Draycott
The Man who Stroked Cats (1955) as Tom Meredith ( Dir. by Anthony Pelissier with Peggy Anne Clifford) (short)
Loser Takes All (1956) as Tony
The Birthday Present (1957) as Simon Scott
Behind the Mask (1958) as Philip Selwood
The Heart of a Man (1959) as Tony Carlisle
Operation Amsterdam (1959) as Major Dillon
The Rough and the Smooth (1959) as Mike Thompson
The Last Winter (1960) as Stephen Burton
Suspect (1960) as Robert Marriott
The Break (1963) as Greg Parker
Dr. Syn Alias the Scarecrow (1963) as Simon Bates
There's a Girl in My Soup (1970) as Andrew Hunter
Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) as George Harding
Mr. Forbush and the Penguins (1971) as George Dewport
The Day of the Jackal (1973) as Superintendent Brian Thomas
Night Watch (1973) as Tony
The People That Time Forgot (1977) as Captain Lawton
Agatha (1979) as William Collins
Countdown to War (1989) as Sir Nevile Henderson
Run for Your Wife (2012) as Man on Bus (final film role)