Guest Actor Biography
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Guest Actor Biography |
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by Pete Stampede and Alan Hayes Born 20 October 1929 in South Wales, Colin Jeavons is one of those under-rated, ever-present supporting actors who never turns in a bad performance. He was a mainstay of the BBC's literary adaptations during the 60's and 70's, making a particularly good Herbert Pocket in Great Expectations (1960), and Uriah Heep in David Copperfield (1966), opposite the future Sir Ian McKellen in the title role. His TV credits date back to playing Prince Hal in a late 50's version of Henry IV made for schools, and an episode of the early legal drama Boyd Q.C., "The Hard Way" (1959). His best role was as the unworldly Donald Duck, who ends up being burnt alive, in Dennis Potter's Blue Remembered Hills (1979). Curiously, I also recall him on children's TV, hosting the long-running Play School and playing Moriarty in The Baker Street Boys (1982), a series about the Baker Street Irregulars in which Holmes was never actually seen. Jeavons' place in the Sherlock Holmes hall of fame was later cemented by his regular appearances as Inspector Lestrade, opposite Jeremy Brett's definitive television Holmes. He also appeared opposite Patrick Newell in Nigel Kneale's soirée into sitcom, Kinvig (1981) - and frankly stole the show each and every week. Trivia time: The Devil's Daffodil (1961) was an Edgar Wallace thriller starring Christopher Lee, made simulataneously in English and German—Jeavons played the killer in the English version; in the German one it was that king of Euro-loons, the late Klaus Kinski. |
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