ALASTAIR SIM (1900-1976)

A tall, stooping character actor with a doleful expression, droll wit and air of bewilderment, Alastair Sim was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on October 9, 1900, the youngest of four children. His father was Alexander Sim and his mother was Isabella McIntyre. His father owned his own tailor's shop and the family lived in rooms above. Alastair went to school in Bruntisfield and to Gillespie's School, where his father was a JP and a governor of the school. He left school at 14 and worked as a messenger in his father's tailoring shop and later worked at Gieves, men's outfitters, where he sold ties. In 1918 he studied to be an analytical chemist at Edinburgh University. He then joined the Officer's Training Corp. but the Armistice came just before he was sent out to the front. When he was released from the OTC, he lived rough for a year in the Highlands, finding employment with a group of migrants who did farm work. Eventually he returned to Edinburgh and worked in the Borough Assessor's Office.

In his early '20s, Alastair became a student at the Edinburgh Provincial Training Centre at Moray House, through which he obtained a post as the Fulton Lecturer in Elocution at New College, Edinburgh University from 1925 through 1930, teaching budding parsons how to speak. After his fame as an actor, he was elected a Rector of Edinburgh University from 1948 through 1951, beating out Harold Wilson by 2078 votes to 802 and was awarded an honorary LLD at the conclusion of his term.

He met his wife, Naomi Plaskitt when they were appearing in an amateur production of THE LAND OF HEARTS DESIRE by William Butler Yeats. He was 27 and she was 12. When she turned 14, Naomi enrolled at Alastair's own School of Drama and Speech Training where she also worked as his secretary. They married when Naomi turned 18 in August 1932. She wrote an autobiography in 1987 entitled Dance and Skylark: Fifty Years With Alistair Sim and details of Alastair's life and career are mainly from this, as well as WHO'S WHO IN THE THEATRE and Internet sources, such as the Internet Movie Data Base plus the personal knowledge and research of my friend in Australia, Ray Stanley. (The title of Naomi's book refers to an old naval order given in sailing ships when the vessel was becalmed).

After acting in amateur productions until he was 29, Alastair hoped to become a professional director but was advised by John Drinkwater, poet, playwright and producer and general manager of the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, that his best chance was to try to become an actor first, and work up to directing in time. Through this contact, he got his first role in OTHELLO and moved to London.

During WWII, Alastair and Naomi relocated to the country, first to Egypt Cottage and later to a place they had built and named "Forrigan" located at Newnham Hill, Henley-on-Thames, Oxon. They took in children who were sent away from London because of fear of the bombs dropping during the blitz. Among these was George Cole, who became practically a foster son. Alastair and George appeared in 11 films together and at least 9 West End plays, plus another which Alastair directed. Alastair and Naomi had one child of their own in August 1940, a daughter named Merlith . Also during the War, Alastair toured with ENSA (Entertainments National Service Association, which did one play at a time and played for only one night at each service camp).

Best remembered nowadays for his definitive portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge, and by me in particular for his portrayal of the ladylike Miss Fritton, headmistress of that blight on the English school system, St. Trinian's, Alastair had an extensive stage career. He directed and appeared in a number of plays by Dr. Osborne Henry Mavor of Glasgow, whose pen name was James Bridie (who died in 1951 after a short illness). Michael Gilbert, the thriller writer, wrote three plays for Alastair, A CLEAN KILL, THE BARGAIN and WINDFALL.

Alastair was awarded the CBE in 1953 and later offered a knighthood but turned it down. He enjoyed tennis, swimming, bridge and games of chance. He died on August 19, 1976 of throat cancer at University College Hospital, London. He left his body for anatomical research.

His stage career included:

1930 OTHELLO, Savoy Theatre. Alastair made his professional stage debut May 19, 1930 as the Messenger. He also understudied Othello, Iago and Roderigo for £5 a week. The production starred Paul Robeson, Peggy Ashcroft and Ralph Richardson.

1930 CAVIARE, Little Theatre, revue. Alastair played the Second Commissar in a a comic sketch entitled WHOLLY RUSSIA.

1931 BETRAYAL by Leonid Andreyev at the Little Theatre. Alastair played Vasiliy Also in the cast were Flora Robson, Reginald Tate, Robert Edison and Margaret Rawlings.

1931 THE VENETIAN by Clifford Bax at the Little Theatre. Alastair played Cardinal Ferdinando di Medici in this drama about the Medicis. His first role as one of the principals. Also in the cast were Wilfred Walter, Margaret Rawlings, Miriam Adams, Esme Hubbard, Gwendolyn Hammond, Ivan Brant, Gabriel Toney, John Flenley, Pascoe Thornton, Michael Curwen, John Clements, Henry Thomas and Catherine Lacey. The play was based upon one of the numerous romantic episodes in the history of the Medici. A contemporary review in THEATRE WORLD singled out Alastair as giving "an impressive rendering of the unscrupulous, scheming Cardinal." On October 31, 1931, Alastair made his New York debut in this same role at the Masque Theatre, his only appearance in America.

1932-3 Alastair played two seasons at the Old Vic where Harcourt Williams directed and Ralph Richardson played the leads the first season; the second season was led by Malcolm Kean and Peggy Ashcroft. The plays changed every 3 weeks. During this time he played:
- Trebonius and Lucilius in JULIUS CAESAR
- Antonio in THE TEMPEST with Marius Goring, Peggy Ashcroft, Anthony Quayle, Malcolm Keen, George Devine and Roger Livesy
- Claudius in HAMLET, with Ralph Richardson, Martita Hunt (as Gertrude), James Lytton, Ethel Glendinning and Frank Napier
- two cameos in John Drinkwater's LINCOLN, Frederick Douglass and John Wilkes Booth with Ralph Richardson, Harcourt Williams, Ethel Glendinning, Frank Napier and James Lytton
- the Duke of Venice in OTHELLO, with Ralph Richardson as Iago and Edith Evans as Emilia (and Roderigo when Richardson was out)
- Pistol in HENRY V with Ralph Richardson, Harcourt Williams, Marius Goring, Matheson Lang, Martita Hunt, Peggy Ashcroft, Ben Greet, Lewis Casson, Sybil Thorndike and Balliol Holloway
- Pothinus in CAESAR AND CLEOPATRA with Marius Goring, Peggy Ashcroft, David Blair, Malcolm Keen, George Devine and Roger Livesy
- Duke Senior in AS YOU LIKE IT with Marius Goring, Peggy Ashcroft, Anthony Quayle, Malcolm Keen, George Devine and Roger Livesy
- Polixenes, King of Bohemia in THE WINTER'S TALE with Marius Goring, Peggy Ashcroft, David Blair, Malcolm Keen, George Devine and Roger Livesy
- The title role in CYMBELINE with Marius Goring, Peggy Ashcroft, Frank Napier, Malcolm Keen, George Devine and Roger Livesy
- The Apothecary in ROMEO AND JULIET with Marius Goring as Romeo, Peggy Ashcroft as Juliet, Frank Napier, Peter Copley, Thorley Walters and Roger Livesy
- Banquo "looking villainous in a red wig" in MACBETH, with Marius Goring, Peggy Ashcroft, Frank Napier, Peter Copley, Thorley Walters and Roger Livesy
- Sir Thomas Randolph in MARY STUART by John Drinkwater with Marius Goring, Peggy Ashcroft, Harcourt Williams, Malcolm Keen, George Devine and Roger Livesy
- Catewayo in THE ADMIRABLE BASHVILLE by George Bernard Shaw with Marius Goring, Peggy Ashcroft, Harcourt Williams, Malcolm Keen, George Devine and Roger Livesy

1933 THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL, opened April 4, 1933 at the Old Vic. Alastair played Crabtree. Also in the cast were Peggy Ashcroft, Veronica Turleigh Geoffrey Wincott, Wyman Kane, Roger Livesey, Valerie Tudor, Clare Harris, William Fox, Malcolm Keen, Cecil Winter, John Allen, Peter Du Calion, Morland Graham, George Devine, Marius Goring, Charles Hickman, Anthony Quayle, Thorley Walters, David Blair, Gordon Brown, Desmond Walter-Ellis and Ruth Wynn Owen.

1933 AS YOU DESIRE ME, by Luigi Pirandello, Gate Theatre. A woman is missing for 10 years having been attacked and abducted during World War I. Her husband has been looking for her all this time and when he discovers the woman he believes is his wife, her current lover, Carl Salter (Alastair) refuses to let her go, shooting himself in his desire to keep her. Salter locates a woman in an insane asylum who he believes is the missing woman and the two possible long lost brides come face to face in the third act. I can't say that things are brought to a successful conclusion by the end, but a surprising twist does occur.

1933 THE ROSE WITHOUT A THORN, an historical play by Clifford Bax, Duke of York's Theatre. Alastair played Sir Thomas Audley in a production that portrayed Henry VIII as an idealist in search of the woman of his dreams.

1934 THE MAN WHO WAS FED UP by Frederick Witney, Vaudeville Theatre. Alastair played Donald Geddes, a comic Scotsman in a story about a successful stockbroker who, tired of the dreary world in which he earns his living, decides to enter a monastery. Also in the cast were Zena Howard, Basil Foster and Peggy Simpson.

1934 THE LIFE THAT I GAVE HIM, Little Theatre. Alastair played Don Giorgio in this Luigi Pirandello melodrama, on a double bill with:

1934 MURDER TRIAL, Little Theatre. A satirical court melodrama where three female witnesses testify to three distinct personality traits of the prisoner in the dock. Alastair played The Judge. Cast for these two plays included Christine Silver, Marion Fawcett, Alfred Clark, Nancy Price, Hubert Langley, Nancy Poultney, Peggy Ashcroft, Ethel Warwick, Catherine du Parcq, Candida John, Betty Tyson, Gwen Rowland, Stella Fox, Irma Angela, Ossia Trilling, Richard Eve, Ronald Sidney, Jack Twyman, Geoffrey Wilkinson, Dorothy Carr, Connie Wade, Frank Williamson, Dora Curwen, Vera King, John Box and Margaret Eylis.

1934 YOUTH AT THE HELM by Hubert Freeling Griffith, Westminster Theatre. Alastair played Ponsonby, a pompous bank manager in this farcical comedy. Also in the cast were Jack Melford, Vera Lennox and O.B. Clarence.

1934 LADY PRECIOUS STEAM, Little Theatre. Alastair played General Wei in this Chinese fantasy by S.I. Hsiung.

1934 ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Duke of York's Theatre. Alastair played the Mad Hatter.

1935 YOUTH AT THE HELM, this time at the Globe Theatre, where Alastair again played Ponsonby. Also in the cast were Owen Nares, Adele Dixon, Kay Hammond and O.B. Clarence.

1937 THE SQUEAKER by Edgar Wallace, Strand Theatre. Alastair played the crime reporter Joshua Collie in the revival of this thriller and recreated the character in the 1937 film version.

1937 THE GUSHER by Ian Hay, Prince's Theatre. Alastair played Peter Bogle, another comic Scotsman in this mystery/adventure play about an oil strike. Also in the cast were Christine Barry, Coral Browne, Joan Hickson, Bernard Lee, Jack Livesey, Henry Thompson, Cyril Smith, Percy Parsons, Ivan Samson an Harold Franklin, among a cast of 70! Over 17 scenes, this is the tale of the search for hidden treasure in the form of oil. The heroic party escapes death at the hands of the natives (complete with witch doctor) and the villain is rolled over a cliff's edge. From a contemporary review in THEATRE WORLD: "One of the best scenes is the coroner's court . . . It is here that Alastair Sim, as Peter Bogle, first puts in an appearance as a dour and argumentative member of the jury ... Mr Sim proves to be a tower of strength on the comedy side."

1939 YOU, OF ALL PEOPLE, a comedy by Peter Rosser at the Prince of Wales Theatre, Cardiff. Alastair played Portwine opposite Leslie Banks, Margaret Rawlings, Lilli Palmer, Richard Bird and Hartley Power.

1939 OLD MASTER by Alexander Knox at the Malvern Festival. Alastair played Vane Barra, a painter whose every future painting has been contracted to rascally art dealer Ernest Thesiger. Barra fakes his death in order to escape his contract, which also has the effect of making his existing paintings appreciate in value. The September 1939 issue of THEATRE WORLD wrote that Alastair played the painter "so that one can smell the oil." Also in the cast were Margaret Withers, Daphne Pounce, Frederick Bradshaw, Betty Marsden and Olive Milbourne.

1940 WHAT SAY THEY... by James Bridie, Golder's Green. Alastair played Professor Hayman, clerk of the senate, in this comedy of university life.

1940 COTTAGE TO LET by Geoffrey Kerr, Wyndham's Theatre, also reopened in May 1941. Alastair played Charles Dimble in this spy thriller and recreated this role in the 1941 film version. The plot involved a scientist (Leslie Banks) whose scatty wife has a small evacuee (George Cole, then only 15) landed on her and puts him into the cottage in her garden, where she has already let a room to an apparently amiable and rather bumbling Scotsman (Alastair) who says he is a writer. The Scotsman is in reality a German spy and is out to get the scientist, or is he? The evacuee, a keen follower of Sherlock Holmes, unmasks the villain. Also in the cast were Thorley Walters, Pamela Nell, C. Jervis-Walter, Gillian Lind, George Butler, Peter Rosser, Fred Groves, Alfred Atkins, Wallace Evennett, Charles Mortimer, Albert Chevalier and Robert Field. When the theatres were closed briefly during WWII, this production toured army camps to entertain the troops during 1940 and 1941.

1941 PETER PAN, Adelphi Theatre. Alastair played Captain Hook and Mr. Darling opposite Barbara Mullen as Peter. Also in the cast were Zena Dare, Joan Greenwood and Russell Thorndike as Smee.

1942 HOLY ISLE by James Bridie, Arts Theatre. Alastair directed. This was a fantasy set in the Orkneys circa 500 A.D. in which a businessman, a friar, a queen and a spirited young man find themselves castaways on an inhabited primitive island; although they attempt to promote the benefits of their modern values, they are instead won over by the islanders' peaceful and relaxed way of life. The cast included Graveley Edwards, Emrys Jones, Margretta Scott, Norman Shelley, Vivienne, Bennett, A. Bromley Davenport and Herbert Lomas.

1942 PETER PAN, Winter Garden Theatre. Alastair again played Captain Hook and Mr. Darling.

1943 MR. BOLFRY by James Bridie, Westminster Theatre. Alastair produced and directed the play and portrayed Mr. McCrimmon, a "Calvinist minister, suddenly confronted with a large and extremely real Devil, conjured up by his atheistic niece and a young soldier billettee" (Alfie Bass). Also in the cast were Sophie Stewart and Raymond Lovell (replaced by Walter Fitzgerald) as the title character, "a Duke of the Infernal Regions". In a later revival, Alastair played the devil. (George Cole took over the Alfie Bass role, when he was called up for military service).

1944 IT DEPENDS WHAT YOU MEAN by James Bridie at the Westminster Theatre. Alastair directed this comedy, partly set in an Army camp where the padre, Rev. William Paris (Alastair) has got together several local people to entertain the troops by putting on a "Brains Trust" quiz in any Army Recreation Hut, answering questions from the audience. The padre is the Question Master and the audience are meant to be the soldiers in the camp. The padre's secretary asks "is marriage a good idea?" and this leads to great and glorious trouble when it seems that an illicit relationship between two members of the Brains Trust may be disclosed. All hell breaks loose and a fight breaks out. Alastair had to vault over a big table at each performance to stop the fight. Also in the cast were Margret Barton, Wilfred Hyde-White, Angela Baddeley, Oliver Johnston, Nuna Davey, Walter Ray, O.B. Clarence and Alec Faversham. Later filmed under the title of FOLLY TO BE WISE.

1945 THE FORRIGAN REEL by James Bridie, Sadler's Wells Theatre. Alastair produced the play and portrayed Old MacAlpin. In the 18th century the wife of a Highland laird believes she is a clock. A party of titled nobs tour the Highlands in the hopes that travel will cure their daughter of the vapours. Both these ladies are eventually cured by two drunken tinkers, father (Alastair) and son (Duncan McRae), who get them dancing the reel. Also in the cast were Eric Fort, Geoffrey Dunn, Ian Wallace, Molly Urquhart and Joan Sterndale Bennett.

1946 DEATH OF A RAT by Jan de Hartog, Lyric, Hammersmith Theatre. The play is about two scientists engaged in cancer research. The elder pricks his finger during an experiment on a rat and knows his death is imminent. The younger is disillusioned and thinking of giving up research in light of the war in Europe. The older man tries to persuade him to stick with his work. Alastair played Wouterson, the younger researcher, as an absent-minded professor. Also in the cast were Pamela Brown and Robert Harris.

1946 PETER PAN, Scala Theatre. Alastair played Captain Hook . Also in the cast were Mary Morris as Peter, John Derrick as Mr. Darling and Donald Pleasance as Gentleman Starkey.

1947 DR. ANGELUS by James Bridie, Phoenix Theatre. Alastair produced and directed the play and appeared in the title role. The play was a burlesque of a comedy-thriller based on a famous Glasgow murderer, Dr. E.W. Pritchard, who poisoned his wife and mother-in-law and was the first man to have a public hanging on Glasgow Green in 1865. Set in 1919, when the play opens Dr. Angelus (Alastair) is supposedly trying to cure his mother-in-law who is very ill, but he is, in fact, stuffing her full of antimony and when she dies, he asks the new young partner, Johnson (George Cole) to sign the death certificate. When Mrs. Angelus becomes ill with the same symptoms Johnson gets very anxious indeed, and when she dies, Johnson refuses to sign the death certificate, culminating in a battle of wills between the two physicians. Also in the cast were Molly Urquhart, Betty Marsden, Charles Carson, Jane Aird, Archie Duncan and Rex Garner. The play appeared on BBC Television in 1948 and was one of the first theatrical plays to appear on TV following its stage run.

1948 THE ANATOMIST by James Bridie, Westminster Theatre. Alastair produced this play about the infamous body snatchers, Burke and Hare, and appeared as Dr. Knox. Also in the cast were George Cole as Walter Anderson and Michael Ripper as Hare. All three appeared in the 1961 film version.

1950 MR. GILLIE by James Bridie, Garrick Theatre. Alastair produced and directed the play and appeared in the title role. The local schoolmaster (Alastair) in a Scottish mining village has a passionate desire to encourage and foster any talents that he may discover among his pupils, to get them out of their awful environment, to set them free and help to launch them on some wonderful future. He himself is a failure by society's standards. He encourages Tom (George Cole) and Nellie (Janet Brown) to get married, to go to London and take the world by the throat, and after a year they return. Tom has become a spiv and is working for a wealthy, small-time crook whose mistress Nellie has become. Alastair's favorite play reflecting his own passionate faith in the young and his belief that they must be supported and encouraged since they are our only hope. This production was also performed on BBC Television but not until 1960, again with Alastair in the title role.

1955 MISERY ME! by Dennis Cannon at the Duchess Theatre. Alastair directed a cast which included Philip Stainton, Eileen Moore, Yvonne Mitchell, George Cole, Clive Morton and Colin Gordon. A contemporary review in THEATRE WORLD praised the "superb satiric wit and delicious turn of phrase. . . This is a story of a young man whose desire to commit suicide is turned into a desire to live when he falls in love. The action takes place in a mid-European mountain inn of pseudo simplicity during a night when the innkeeper's wife is giving birth."

1956 MR. BOLFRY, a revival of the James Bridie play at the Aldwych. This time Alastair directed and played the title role. Sophie Stewart recreated her original role of the Minister's wife; George Cole and Owen Holder played soldiers billeted at the Free Kirk Manse in the wilds of the West Highlands. Duncan Macrae played the straight-laced minister, the role Alastair originally played, who has the misfortune to have an encounter with the Devil in his own parlor.

1958 THE BRASS BUTTERFLY a comedy by William Golding, opened February 24, 1958 at the New Theatre, Oxford., then the Strand, London An aging Roman emperor (Alastair) on his isle of Capri retreat is visited by an inventor (George Cole) who wants his patronage to help him with his work. The inventor has discovered how to harness the force of steam and tries to persuade the emperor to make use of it to power his ships. However, the emperor is content to use the steam to cook his fish in a pressure cooker. The inventor has also invented explosives but the emperor can't imagine a use for something that "claps out". The heir designate leads a palace revolt, and the inventor's sister removes the "safety catch" on the explosive, which the inventor calls a "brass butterfly". When the bomb goes off it destroys the emperor's enemies and he is suitably grateful, but when the inventor discovers printing, the emperor thinks the scope for self-expression on this scale should be suppressed, so he sends the inventor off as his Envoy Extraordinary on a slow boat to China. Also in the cast were Jeremy Spenser, Jack Hedley, George Selway, Eileen Moore and Geoffrey Matthews.

1959 A CLEAN KILL by Michael Gilbert, Criterion Theatre (Bournemouth) and Criterion Theatre (London). Alastair's daughter Merlith was Assistant Stage Manager and Alastair directed. This was a three-act murder mystery involving a chemist who invents an odorless detergent. The cast included Peter Copley, Helen Christie, Rachel Roberts, Dandy Nichols, Hugh Latimer and Andrew Kier.

1961 THE BARGAIN by Michael Gilbert, St. Martin's Theatre. Alastair directed and starred in this comedy about an upright solicitor (Alastair) blackmailed for trying to buy on the cheap a Goya miniature which, unknown to him, has been stolen from one of his own clients. Also in the cast were George Cole as the blackmailer and Janet Brown as his Moll, Helen Christie and Peter Copley.

1962 THE TEMPEST, opened May 29, 1962 at the Old Vic, London. Alastair played Prospero. Also in the cast were Eileen Atkins, Stephen Thorne, Sylvia Coleridge and Patrica Jessel.

1962 WINDFALL by Michael Gilbert, Lyric Theatre. About a boy's school saved from going bankrupt by the mathematical genius of one of the younger boys. Alastair played Alexander Lindsay, the housemaster, and Merlith played his daughter.

1963 PETER PAN, Scala Theatre. Alastair again played Captain Hook.

1964 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, Nottingham Playhouse. Alastair played Shylock. Also in the cast were Michael Cadman and Gemma Jones.

1964 PETER PAN, opened December 18, 1964 at the Scala Theatre. Alastair again played Captain Hook. Also in the cast were Dawn Addams, Jean Harvey, Timothy Parkes, Alison Frazer, Tony Helm, Jane Wren, Edward Palmer, Bruce Heighley, Frank McNamara, Roger Swaine, Jonathan Crane, Ralph Carrigan, Peter Kaukas, Rodney Mullinar, Jean Shaw, Pippa Steel, Denise Allworth, Clive Chapman and Joy Measures.

1965 THE ELEPHANT'S FOOT by William Trevor. Alastair directed and played Freer. Also in the cast were Roger Livesey, Ursula Jeans and Richard Kay.

1965 TOO TRUE TO BE GOOD by George Bernard Shaw directed by Frank Dunlop, opened October 22, 1965 at the Strand Theatre. Alastair played Colonel Tallboys. Also in the cast were Dora Bryan, James Bolam, George Cole , June Ritchie, Athene Seyler, Anthony Oliver and Kenneth Haigh. The story was of a rich and bored young woman who finds two burglars in her bedroom. Instead of handing them over to the police, she runs off with them to live on the proceeds of burglary. When that does not relieve the problems of her life, she turns to religion.

1966 THE CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE by David Garrick, Chichester. Alastair played Lord Ogleby, an aged roué who believes that all young women fall madly in love with him. During a dull spot in the play, the 65-year old Sim slid down a curved stairway at great speed. Also in the cast were Sarah Badel, Margaret Rutherford and Ann Beach.

1967 NUMBER 10 by Ronald Millar, Strand Theatre. Alastair costarred as the Prime Minister with husband-and-wife team Michael Denison and Dulcie Gray and John Gregson about a political crisis that arises when the president of an African state illegally takes control of a British mining factory.

1968 PETER PAN, Scala Theatre. Alastair again played Captain Hook.

1968 THE MAGISTRATE by Miguel Pinero, at the Chichester Festival. Possket, the Magistrate (Alastair) is taken out on the town by his young stepson (Christopher Guinee) and falls into one scrape after another before they become separated. He staggers back to his own court early the next morning, before his clerk arrives, in a pitiable state. Exhausted from running away from the police, his face and hands filthy, his hair on end, and his evening clothes torn and muddled, he tries to wash and dress in too much of a hurry and one thing after another goes wrong in this farce. Patricia Routledge played the Magistrate's wife. Also in the cast were director John Clements, Michael Aldridge, Robert Coote and Renee Asherson. According to Sim's wife, this is the best thing he ever did in his life. The show later transferred to the Cambridge Theatre September 1969. I was contacted by Steve Crook who remembers seeing a clip from this play during the TV series HEROES OF COMEDY. He described Alastair on "the morning after, washing in front of the mirror. He wags his finger at the image in the mirror, asking 'Who was naughty?' The finger hesitates, slowly turns to point to himself and then he puts it to his lower lip with a lovely, hang-dog look."

1970 THE JOCKEY CLUB STAKES by William Douglas Home, Vaudeville Theatre. Alastair played the Marquis of Candover, the senior Jockey Club steward. Also in the cast were Geoffrey Sumner and Robert Coote. Writing in PLAYS AND PLAYERS, Sheridan Morley wrote, Sim "pops his eyes and quivers his chin as if treble takes were going to be imminently rationed".

1972 SIEGE by David Ambrose, Cambridge Theatre. Alastair played Willy, an ex-prime minister whose nightmare of subversive activities overwhelming London seems to come to pass. Also in the cast were Stanley Holloway and Michael Bryant

1973 A PRIVATE MATTER by Ronald Mavor, opened February 21, 1973 at the Vaudeville Theatre. Alastair played Mervyn Dakins in a play that examines the strains within the Black family when an Oxford Don visits their home, intending to write a biography of the late General Black. Also in the cast were Peter Cellier and Dorothy Reynolds. Ian McKellan directed. Writing in PLAYS AND PLAYERS, Sheridan Morley wrote, "Mr. Sim irrigates the dialogue with doses of Machiavellian charm".

1973 DANDY DICK by Arthur Wing Pinero. Alastair played Augustine Jedd opposite Patricia Routledge, Richard Owens, Gemma Craven, Geoffrey Beevers and Barry McGinn, directed by John Clements at the Chichester Festival. This is a period comedy about a censorious clergyman whose sister (Routledge) owns a half interest in the racehorse Dandy Dick. When the beast gets chilled, the clergyman administers a remedy to it (in the hopes that a bet he intends to place on it will win him the money to cover a pledge he's made to restore the church spire) but he is arrested when he's mistaken for the person who set fire to the stables. It all ends happily with the clergyman's daughters and sister engaged, and the debts of all covered by winnings of the race. Pat Routledge said about Alastair: To be on stage with him was an education. When he reached that pitch of obsession with a situation, however absurd, there was nothing he could not do with those staring eyes, that jabbing finger, the swoops and wobbles of his voice. Playing opposite him taught me so much. The show later transferred to the Garrick Theatre in October 1973. Writing in PLAYS AND PLAYERS, Sheridan Morley opined, Sim "can do more with a shudder of his shoulders than most others with HAMLET and ought soon to be given over to the National Theatre."

1975 THE CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE by George Colman and David Garrick, Savoy Theatre, directed by Ian McKellan. Alastair recreated his role of Lord Ogleby costarring with Ron Moody and Dandy Nichols.

Films Alastair Sim appeared in include:

1935	The Riverside Murder	Sergeant McKay	The first of Alastair's comic Scottish police sidekicks. This is a story of a tontine, 5 men who made a pact to share their profits. As the deadline approaches, they are killed off one by one. Basil Sydney plays the policeman in charge of the case, whose investigation is complicated by a pushy girl reporter.
1935	The Private Secretary	Mr. Nebulae	Alastair had a cameo as a phony medium duping a gullible old lady who is trying to communicate with the spirit of the father of Edward Everett Horton, a mild mannered and naive reverend who is the new secretary of a country squire. Based on a British stage comedy by Charles Hawtrey adapted from a German play. This was first performed in 1884 by Herbert Beerbohm Tree.
1935	Late Extra	MacPherson	The first of Alastair's comic newspaper men. He plays a 20-year veteran on a London newspaper, whose prize possession is an umbrella he was given at the 15 year mark; he also takes up collections for reporters who are fired or retire. The plot involves cub reporter James Mason striking lucky on his first assignment which leads to the capture of an escaped cop killer.
1935	A Fire Has Been Arranged	Cutte	Alastair's first film with THE CRAZY GANG. He plays the shifty manager of a department store that is about to go bankrupt because he's been cooking the books. The Crazy Gang have just got out of jail after serving 10 years for a jewel robbery and discover the department store has been built over the field where they buried the loot. Alastair learns of the gang's criminal past and hires them for a spot of arson.
1935	The Case of Gabriel Perry		Courtroom drama.
1936	Wedding Group	Angus Graham	Alastair played a stern minister in this story set in a Scottish manse at the time of the Crimean War. Alastair's wife, Naomi, played Jessie the Maid, the only film in which they appeared together. Fay Compton played Florence Nightingale.
1936	Troubled Waters	Mac MacTavish
1936	Man in the Mirror	Interpreter	Edward Everett Horton plays a timid stockbroker whose image emerges from a mirror and does a better job of living his life both at home and at work. He wines and dines an Eastern potentate whose country has large deposits of nitrate, but the Bogus of Bokhara turns out to be a phony pulling a hoax. Alastair plays Mannering, the turbaned interpreter, spewing a lot of gobbledygook.
1936	Keep Your Seats, Please!	Drayton	Another version of the Russian tale on which THE TWELVE CHAIRS and IT'S IN THE BAG were based. Alastair plays a lawyer who schemes to get his hands on the chair in which his late client hid jewels and bonds before the true heir, the penniless George Formby, can get the chairs.
1936	The Big Noise	Finny	Alastair's first starring role; also a role in which he sang!
1937	Gangway	Taggett	Jessie Matthews is a film reviewer who longs to report hard news. Her editor gets her a job as a maid to a movie star in the hopes of stealing the star's diary. Scotland Yard is looking for a jewel thief called Sparkle who often masquerades as a maid, and they suspect Jessie, and so does the insurance investigator played by Alastair, who is undercover as a steward on the ocean liner where Jessie winds up through plot complications.
1937	The Squeaker	Joshua Collie	This was an Edgar Wallace thriller which Alastair had performed on stage and then got to do in the film. He played another comic Scotsman, a newspaper reporter. The title refers to a sort of underworld crime-lord who is both a fence and an informer; when thieves bring him their ill gotten loot, he quotes them low prices and if they don't accept, he turns them in to Scotland Yard. Jewel thief Robert Newton recognizes him and so gets shot. Edmund Lowe is a former Scotland Yard inspector who goes undercover to break the case. Wonderfully atmospheric black and white photography, fabulous glimpses of 1937 London and great sinister music.
1937	Strange Experiment	Lawler
1937	A Romance in Flanders	Colonel Wexton
1937	Melody and Romance	Professor Williams	Alastair played the dotty anthropologist father of Margaret Lockwood, who is trying to break into show business.
1937	Clothes and the Woman	Francois
1938	This Man is News	MacGregor	This is a fast paced crime comedy set in the newsroom of a London newspaper. Alastair played the excitable Scots editor who fires crack reporter Barry K. Barnes for refusing an assignment because he's obsessed with a mob stool pigeon. The reporter gets drunk and phones in a phony story of the criminal's murder, which the editor prints, but it comes true, and the reporter is arrested on suspicion of murder after the murder weapon is found in his apartment. It soon becomes clear the reporter's life is in danger, and eventually Alastair's character is wounded in an attempt on the reporter's life. There is even a sort of James Bond prototype supercriminal with a hair lip, whose face is withheld from the camera, so that all you can see is the pet mice he caresses as they crawl in his arms. Alastair had a funny bit where he sings COMING THROUGH THE RYE as he shaves in the bath.
1938	Sailing Along	Sylvester	Roland Young, head of Gulliver Soup, discovers Jessie Matthews singing and dancing on a barge. Jessie has always wanted to be on the stage, and Young arranges to launch her career. Alastair played a friend of Young's, an eccentric painter who specializes in abstracts, but after being exposed to the down to earth common sense of Jessie, he produces a representative painting of a cow and meadow.
1938	The Terror	"Soapy" Marx	Alastair plays a minion of a supercriminal who masterminded a gold theft and then ratted on his two henchmen. After these fall guys get out of jail 10 years later, they show up at a priory that is being used as a hotel and features a number of eccentrics. When Alastair's criminal cohort winds up dead, Alastair masquerades as a clergyman in the hopes of getting his share of the loot. The supercriminal turns out to be insane, and good fun is had with secret panels and underground passages. Kathleen Harrison and Irene Handl have small roles as servants. Based on an Edgar Wallace play.
1938	Alf's Button Afloat	The Genie	Centuries after the magic lamp of Aladdin is buried, it is dug up by a plowing Chinaman and sold to a gullible G.I. who donates it to a WWII metal scrap drive where it is melted down and made into buttons for marine uniforms. Some indigent street performers (the Crazy Gang) get shanghaied into joining the marines and one, Alf Higgins, winds up with the button on his uniform. Alastair played the genie in an impossibly high hat. At first he has trouble discerning what the Cockney lads want, but when Alf sends him to the movies to find out about 1937, he comes back as a tough talking gangster type.
1939	Climbing High	Max	Alastair played a comic communist forced to take a job as a male model in order to pay the rent. His first posing job is a "before" in a leopard loincloth against a muscle builder's "after". He gets Jessie Matthews a modeling job as well, and she falls for Michael Redgrave who is engaged to a society dame he doesn't want to marry, especially after he falls for Jessie.
1939	Inspector Hornleigh	Sergeant Bingham	Alastair plays a bumbling comic police sergeant to Gordon Harker's Inspector. They investigate a murder which leads to the discovery of a plot to profit by advance knowledge of the U.K. budget, details of which have been stolen by the clever switching of the budget bag of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Alastair's sergeant always leaps to the wrong conclusion while Hornleigh, like Sherlock Holmes, manages to figure out what has happened on virtually no evidence. Alastair has a nice scene in an atmospheric alley where he is stalked by the murderer. Successful enough to spawn two sequels.
1939	This Man in Paris	MacGregor	Sequel to THIS MAN IS NEWS where Alastair recreated his role of news editor.
1939	The Mysterious Mr. Davis	Theodore F. Wilcox	Alastair provided the comedy relief in this story of a business partner who creates a new identity to postpone the demands of creditors.
1939	Inspector Hornleigh on Holiday	Sergeant Bingham	Alastair recreated his police sergeant role in the second of the three INSPECTOR HORNLEIGH films. He and the Inspector go on vacation together to Brighton, where it rains the entire time. While there, they stumble upon a murder which, upon investigation, leads to a gang who fake deaths in order to defraud insurance companies. Alastair has several wonderful scenes, including one where he's in the lair of the gang and, answering the phone, pretends to be one of them, not realizing Inspector Hornleigh is on the other end of the line, disguising his voice. Gordon Harker gets to impersonate a Harley Street physician and an old sailor. Quite a clever plot and atmospheric music during some suspenseful sequences.
1940	Law and Disorder	Samuel Blight	Alastair played a senior lawyer in a patriotic tale of saboteurs being brought to justice.
1941	Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It	Sergeant Bingham	Alastair recreated his police sergeant role in the last of the three INSPECTOR HORNLEIGH films. He and Hornleigh go undercover in the army to find out who is scrounging goods to resell, but accidentally get onto a network selling information to the Germans. Alastair has to impersonate a dentist (and remove two teeth) and gets to fall for two unsuitable women. The ending takes place on a mail train where Hornleigh narrowly escapes sudden death when he has to climb outside of the train to break into the compartment next door.
1941	Cottage to Let	Charles Dimble	Alastair and George Cole recreated their roles from the stage version of this spy thriller set in Scotland. A scientist (Leslie Banks) working on a bomb sight for the war effort and his dotty wife are also housing a bunch of suspicious characters who may be German spies or Scotland Yard undercover men. It would be giving away a plot twist to say more than that Alastair plays a tenant at the cottage.
1942	Let the People Sing	The Professor	Alastair's first J.B. Priestly film is a socially conscious comedy about a Yorkshire music hall which some townspeople want to be made into a museum and others want as a showroom for a plastics factory. Alastair plays an illegal Czech immigrant whose outsider's view of the freedoms enjoyed by the English contributes to the arbitrator's decision.
1944	Waterloo Road	Dr. Montgomery	John Mills played an AWOL soldier who spends the day looking for his discontented wife, who is being wooed by ne'er do well Stewart Granger. Alastair played the avuncular neighborhood doctor who narrates the tale, patches up Mills when he gets hurt in a scuffle and tips him off where to find Granger. Click here for BFI webpage.
1946	Green for Danger	Inspector Cockrill	Alastair played a Scotland Yard detective who investigates a double murder at a war time hospital. Although this is a mystery, there is a thread of comedy running through it, and Alastair gets a couple of nice scenes, such as the one where he peeks at the last page of a mystery novel, confident he knows the murderer, but turns out to be wrong. The structure of the piece is a report Alastair's detective is dictating, so at times he narrates in scenes before his character appears. Click here for BFI webpage.
1947	Hue and Cry	Felix Wilkinson	You wouldn't know it from the comedic music under the opening credits (clever use of graffiti for these titles) but this is a rousing adventure film. A bright lad who is looking for his first job stumbles upon the use of a weekly illustrated thriller to give coded instructions to a gang. With the help of his friends, he manages to figure out how the instructions get into the paper and plant new instructions which lead to the round up of the entire gang. Although Alastair is top billed, he has only 3 scenes, two of them very short. He plays the author of the serial who has no idea it is being used by a gang and, when he finds out, he is so terrified, he has to be blackmailed by one of the boys into planting the instructions which lead to the capture of the gang. This film is practically a time capsule of post-WWII London, with its scenes at Covent Garden back when it was still a flower and vegetable market, and the many shots of the rubble strewn streets. The climactic battle with the master criminal takes place in a bombed out building and is full of sinister shadows. The real lead of the film is Harry Fowler who plays the plucky boy who figures out what is going on and stands up to the master criminal. Click here for BFI webpage. See: http://www.wickedlady.com/films/ealing/hue.html
1947	Captain Boycott	Father McKeogh	This is based on a true story set in early 19th century Ireland about a demanding landlord (Cecil Parker) who evicts tenant farmers from their homes. The town bands together and shuns him, refusing to work for him, and when the army is called in to protect the volunteers who arrive to harvest his crops, they soon turn against him as well. Alastair played the town priest who preaches moderation.
1948	London Belongs to Me	Mr. Squales	This is a film about the residents of an apartment house in Dulcimer Street. When Richard Attenborough is tempted into a life of crime, he accidentally murders a casual girlfriend, and when the police arrest him, the residents rally around. Alastair played a phony medium who accidentally overhears enough to deduce that Attenborough will be arrested, and uses this information to pretend to predict that it will happen. Click here for the BFI webpage.
1950	The Happiest Days of Your Life	Wetherby Pond	Margaret Rutherford is the headmistress of a girls' school, St. Swithin, billeted in error during the war at a boys' school, Nutbourne College, whose headmaster is Alastair. At first the staffs of the two schools are at loggerheads, but when the parents of some of the girls arrive to tour the school on the same day as the governors of a college Sim hopes to be appointed to, the two schools cooperate by creating two separate tours which require split second timing, the parents seeing only the girls and the governors seeing only the boys. Also in the cast is Joyce Grenfell and in a tiny cameo, George Cole as an underling on the maintenance staff at the Ministry of Education. Many otherwise knowledgeable people mistake this for one of the St. Trinian's films. It is not. It was based on a play by John Dighton which also starred Margaret Rutherford. I believe the mix-up is due to the fact that Ronald Searle drawings appear under the opening credits, this and the St. Trin's films were presented by Gilliat and Launder; and, of course, this film and the first St. Trinian's film starred Alastair and Joyce Grenfell. Joyce was in the first 3 St. Trinian's films and, after the first one, Alastair had only a small cameo in the second. Click here for BFI webpage.
1950	Stage Fright	Commodore Gill	Alastair played the father of Jane Wyman, an acting student in love with Richard Todd. When Todd comes to her with a bloody dress, claiming his girlfriend, Marlene Dietrich, murdered her husband, Wyman brings Todd to her father to hide out. Wyman disguises herself as a maid and gets a job with Dietrich to investigate, and her amazingly supportive father helps her. They all attend a theatrical garden party where Alastair's character gets the idea to confront Dietrich with a doll whose dress has blood on it. The scene where he first tries to buy and then to win this doll at a shooting gallery run by Joyce Grenfell is a comic highlight. The ending takes place in a theatre where the police arrange for Todd and Dietrich to confront each other, and the true murderer is revealed.
1951	Lady Godiva Rides Again	Hawtrey Murington of Optimum Films	Alastair had an unbilled cameo as a down on his luck movie director whom aspiring starlet Pauline Stroud comes to looking for a job. George Cole played Stroud's boyfriend who doesn't like her going into show business. A cynical look into beauty pageants and the unglamorous life of struggling show biz personalities.
1951	Laughter in Paradise	Deniston Russell	A practical joker (Hugh Griffin) dies and leaves a great deal of money to several relatives, provided they each fulfill one difficult condition, all different. Alastair played a stuffy and conventional writer who must get himself arrested and sent to prison for 28 days. First he tries shoplifting but he's so spectacularly unsuccessful he winds up with his pocket picked. The shoplifting scenes were shot on the ground floor of Swan & Edgar on a Sunday. Alastair pinches one thing after another but no one pays any attention to him. Then he tries stealing a car, but picks one with a vicious dog inside. Finally he tosses a brick through a shop window and when he comes up for trial, the judge is his potential father-in-law. Joyce Grenfell played his snooty fiancé. They are due to be married in two weeks and in order to get her to postpone the wedding and account for his disappearance, he leads her to believe he is a spy. Joyce is in the military herself and falls for this hook, line and sinker, only to return his ring when he insults her father in court in order to lengthen his prison sentence to the amount required by the terms of the Will. George Cole played a timid bank clerk whose task in the Will is to hold up the bank. Click here for the BFI webpage.
1951	Scrooge a/k/a A Christmas Carol	Ebenezer Scrooge	Judging from the number of "hits" using ILOR as a search engine, this is everyone's favorite Christmas movie and certainly the most faithful and beloved version of the timeless Dickens tale of a miserly man visited on Christmas Eve by the spirit of his late partner, as well as the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas to Come. A heart tugger whose moral is it's never too late for redemption.. Also in the cast is George Cole, playing Scrooge in the Christmas Past flashback.
1952	Innocents in Paris	Sir Norman Barker	Alastair played an official attending a U.N. economic conference who wins a diplomatic victory over the Russian delegate during cocktails at a Parisian nightclub. He is the government official responsible for limiting the amount of money tourists can take from the U.K. to France to £5, but he runs up a bill at a Russian cafe far in excess of that, for which he has to pay with his gold watch, cufflinks and cigarette lighter.
1953	Folly to be Wise	Captain Paris	Film version of the James Bridie quiz show comedy IT DEPENDS WHAT YOU MEAN. Alastair played the well-intentioned clergyman who was entertainment officer of an army camp. When a production of CHARLIE'S AUNT falls through, his secretary gets the idea of a brain's trust, where local experts answer questions written in by the soldiers. When the padre's secretary asks "does marriage work", it causes a breakdown between two of the married panelists and the university chum of the husband who is sweet on the wife. The whole thing ends in a caravan hurtling toward a sheer drop off a cliff, with the unlucky threesome and the padre on board. George Cole had a brief cameo as a young soldier who, after the debacle on stage, stands up to praise the event and request that it be a regular thing.
1954	The Belles of St. Trinian's	Clarence/Miss Fritton	Alastair's only female impersonation, the gentle and sweet-natured Miss Fritton. See: http://judyharris.net/trinian.htm Also in the cast is George Cole as Flash Harry. Click here for BFI webpage.
1954	An Inspector Calls	Inspector Goole	Alastair plays a mysterious inspector who interviews a prosperous Yorkshire family in 1912 and gets each member to admit that their class snobbery is partly responsible for the death of a young girl. Designed to prick people's social conscience. George Cole had a cameo has a tram conductor.
1955	Wee Geordie	The Laird	Alastair plays a kestrel-loving laird whose gamekeeper was a small lad who sent away for body building lessons and grew into brawny Bill Travers. He wins a local hammer throwing contest and is asked to be on the British Olympic team for the Australian games.
1955	Escapade	Dr. Skillingsworth	Alastair played the headmaster of a boys' boarding school who tries to find out what secret mission some boys undertake which turns out to involve stealing a plane to present a peace proposal to the Four Powers.
1956	The Green Man	Hawkins	A mild mannered hired assassin (Alastair) specializes in explosions. He plans to do one more job before he retires, but his plans are thwarted by a vacuum cleaner salesman (George Cole, very amusing with his sale pitch of the Little Wizard Electro Broom which "disinfects as it beats as it sweeps as it cleans"). Cole discovers what he thinks is a dead body in a piano but the body turns up alive after overhearing that her politician boss (Raymond Huntley) is to be killed at the Green Man pub. Cole and the woman (Jill Adams) to whom he was demonstrating the vacuum set off to the pub, not knowing what the assassination target looks like and mistake Terry-Thomas, a philandering husband, for the politician who is also there for a dirty weekend. Based on a stage play by Frank Launder and Sidney Gilliat entitled MEET A BODY. Click here for BFI webpage.
1957	Blue Murder at St. Trinian's	Miss Fritton	Just a cameo for Alastair. See http://judyharris.net/trinian.htm Also in the cast is George Cole recreating his role as Flash Harry.
1959	The Doctor's Dilemma	Cutler Walpole	Alastair played one of four knighted Harley Street specialists who are consulted by Leslie Caron who wants them to save the life of her talented artist husband, Dirk Bogarde who is charming but morally corrupt. All of the doctors are themselves charming scoundrels, and look on their patients not as suffering people but as sources of interesting research and potential money. Alastair believes that blood poisoning is the root of all illness; his speciality is excising a sac which may, in fact, be nonexistent in some patients! Talky, like a lot of Shaw.
1960	School for Scoundrels	Mr. S. Potter	Alastair played Stephen Potter (in reality the author of the faux instruction book on which this film was based), the head of the School of Lifemanship, which turns losers into winners. Ian Carmichael takes the course, and under Alastair's tutelage, he manages to put his bossy chief clerk in his place, get the best of two shady car dealers (Dennis Price and Peter Jones) and best his rival (Terry-Thomas) not only in tennis but also for the hand of the girl (Janette Scott) they're both after. Click here for the BFI webpage.
1960	The Millionairess	Sagamore	Sophia Loren plays the world's richest woman; she is spoiled and headstrong and has her heart set on marrying a poor, baffled Indian doctor (Peter Sellers) but he is unimpressed by her money. Alastair plays the lawyer who suggested a clause in the will of Sophia's father about a test for a potential husband; when Sophia threatens to retreat from the world and give up men, Alastair figures out a way to get her and her Indian doctor together.
1961	Left, Right and Center	Lord Wilcot	Ian Carmichael plays his usual befuddled role as a quiz show celebrity participating in a parliamentary by-election who falls in love with his opposing candidate. Richard Wattis and Eric Barker are the campaign managers for the opponents who team up to thwart the romance. Alastair plays Carmichael's uncle who has turned his stately ancestral home into a theme park a la Longleat.
1961	The Anatomist	Dr. Knox	Alastair, George Cole and Michael Ripper recreated their stage roles in this TV version of the 1948 James Bridie play about the infamous Burke and Hare. Adrienne Corri plays a tart who meets George Cole in a pub; later that morning, her body is brought to the mortuary by Burke (Diarmuid Kelly) and Hare (Michael Ripper) and Cole realizes she has been murdered, but Dr. Knox (Alastair) talks him out of going to the police. Six months go by; Burke is hung on Hare's evidence and the mob comes after Knox, but the play shows that although Knox realizes that 16 deaths are on his conscience, his anatomy students and society still admire him and apparently his life goes on as always. A study in the irresponsibility of the upper classes still pertinent today.
1972	The Ruling Class	Bishop Lampton	Alastair plays the baffled brother of the 13th Earl of Gurney (Harry Andrews); when the Earl dies in rather embarrassing circumstances, his son (Peter O'Toole) is sprung from the loony bin where he's been confined for years because of his belief that he is Jesus Christ. The family (William Mervyn and Coral Brown) marry him off to a music hall entertainer (Carolyn Seymour) who the 14th Earl thinks is the fictitious Lady of the Camellias. At the time of the imminent birth of their child, the family resorts to shock treatment to jolt O'Toole to sanity, and it seems to work, in that he no longer believes himself to be God, but now thinks he is Jack the Ripper, with murderous results. However, such is the eccentricity expected of nobility that the Earl gets away with all his bizarre behavior. A marvelous satire, with great musical numbers. Arthur Lowe is wonderful as the bolshy butler who gets uppity after he inherits some money. See: http://www.dvdjournal.com/quickreviews/r/rulingclass_cc.q.shtml
1972	A Christmas Carol	Ebenezer Scrooge (voice)	This is a 24-minute children's version of the famous Dickens tale with Alastair as the voice of Scrooge and Michael Hordern as the voice of Marley. The limited animation was by Richard Williams. This won the Oscar for the best animated short subject in 1973.
1975	Royal Flash	Mr. Greig	As in THE MILLIONAIRESS, Alastair once again played a very unorthodox lawyer in this adventure tale of Harry Flashman.
1976	Rogue Male	The Earl	This is a grim story about a British nobleman played by Peter O'Toole, who attempts to assassinate Hitler in 1939. He is tortured but escapes Germany; however, upon his return to England, he is in danger of being killed himself by German agents. Alastair, as in THE RULING CLASS, plays O'Toole's uncle, who is someone important in the government. He has two scenes with O'Toole set in a steam room; in the first, he is unsympathetic to O'Toole's plight and advises him to leave the country; in the second, after O'Toole has taken care of his pursuers, Alastair tells him all is forgiven and to pop along to the Admiralty and see Churchill for some job.
1977	The Littlest Horse Thieves	Lord Harrogate	Alastair played the owner of a mine in Yorkshire, 1909. The mine is losing money so a new manager is hired who decides to replace the pit ponies with machinery. When the young boys who tend the ponies learn they are to be slaughtered, they stage a daring rescue. Although top billed, Alastair had only a few scenes.

The only TV shows he appeared in are

MISLEADING CASES (1967) where he portrayed Stipendary Magistrate Mr. Swallow. Thorley Walters played opposing counsel Sir Joshua Hoot and Roy Dotrice was Albert Haddock. This lasted for 3 series of 19 episodes, the last year (1971) being in color.

COLD COMFORT FARM (1971) where he portrayed Amos Starkadder. Also in the cast were Brian Blessed, Fay Compton, Fionnula Flanagan and Freddie Jones.

THE GENERAL'S DAY (1972) by William Trevor. John J. O'Connor wrote on January 25, 1977: Tonight at 8, the late Alastair Sim can be seen in a 60-minute play entitled "General's Day." Written by William Trevor, playwright and novelist, the piece offers an offbeat treatment of old age through a character named Adam, a retired Army general living in a small seaside village. Out of Harold Pinter, by way of David Storey, the general marches erectly through a world that is vaguely threatening, unsettlingly comic. A life-long bachelor, he was a rogue in his youth and has lost little of his devilish vitality. In his substantially appointed home, the general does battle with his incredibly dumpy housekeeper, who arrives with her parrot, a collection of hideous knickknacks, and a streak of casual viciousness. She refuses to be dismissed. He calls her a charwoman, adding that "I dislike having to remind you of that." She intentionally breaks one of his bone-china knickknacks. He screams, "You cow!" Going out to lunch with his album of old photographs under his arm, the general meets a plain woman who is advancing into middle age as a teacher at St. Monica's girls' school. It turns out that the general once gave tennis lessons at the school but departed when rumors about "cuddling senior girls" began circulating. He tells the woman, who has never married, that she is wasting her time at St. Monica's. She agrees. "Come to Ivy Cottage and housekeep for me," he says. She finds the whole idea quite preposterous and leaves. But she returns later on. He recalls his younger days, the madcap antics mixed with romantic yearnings and lingering images of feet on cold linoleum. She remembers her "affair" with a married choirmaster. They met once a week for eight years, sharing biscuits and instant coffee out of beakers. The general orders more gins and tonic. Elsie, as she is called, talks of planting snowdrops and herbs in a small garden. He, unobtrusively patting her knee, confesses to being partial to mashed parsnips with butter. The housekeeper, meanwhile, is still at the general's home, listening to her portable radio and replacing his mementos with her knickknacks. The slight tale drifts to its perhaps inevitable conclusion, a bit repetitive, somewhat drawn out, but shimmering with fine performances. Mr. Sim is extraordinary, veering continuously between dignity and indignation, between elderly charm and dirty old man. He struts magnificently and leers with anxious lasciviousness. Beneath the surface of his bravado is a helpless, moving rage. The other two key roles are also performed splendidly. Dandy Nichols, who was seen here on Broadway in David Storey's "Home," plays the cleaning woman, and is mesmerizing in her projection of casual and vacuous menace. Annette Crosbie's Elsie is devastatingly plain, helplessly appealing. "General's Day" was directed by John Gorrie. Produced for the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1972, it is a small work, exquisitely mounted. It is superior television.

THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER (1975) where Alastair played Father Perfect, one of three priests (the others being Jeremy Brett and Charles Kay) who hire a young housekeeper. Alastair played a very humanistic priest who hires a young woman (Carolyn Seymour) not only not Catholic but also who also has had an abortion. This causes a crisis of faith in Brett, who ultimately decides to leave the priesthood. Among the eccentricities of Alastair's character is that he ran his own amateur radio network and hoped that God would contact him through it! I am indebted to Diarmid from Scotland who contacted me to let me know this was an extra on a special edition DVD he acquired of COTTAGE TO LET.

I have been able to find reference to a 3 record, 2-hour set of SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER by Oliver Goldsmith with Alastair, Brenda de Banzie, Alan Howard, Tony Tanner and Claire Bloom; and Arnold Wengrow kindly told me it was recorded in 1965 by Caedmon.

Photos of Alistair from various films.

In 2013 George Cole published his autobiography (THE WORLD WAS MY LOBSTER, published by John Blake). In it, he reveals that he first noticed Alastair in the cinema when he saw ALF'S BUTTON AFLOAT (1938). "I was so fascinated by him that I remember staying to watch the end credits to see what his name was. Never could I have imagined that within a couple of years I would be working with him. When I did, he came across exactly the way I imagined him to be: benign, avuncular and extremely funny." Cole adds: "As well as being a born actor, he was a natural comic. He soon found that, whatever role he was playing, the audience's attention somehow seemed to become directed towards him because there was something strangely comic about him and the audience somehow expected him to be amusing. Many of his most memorable performances on stage and screen after that were comic roles. He was a big man, standing just under six feet tall, with a larger-than-life personality. He had the most amazing talent for making people laugh without saying anything inherently funny."

Writing of

COTTAGE TO LET, Cole states: "The experience of working with seasoned professionals such as Alastair ... had a profound effect on me, especially the way Alastair could convincingly change his character in a split second from a humorous bumbling Scotsman to a seemingly sinister Nazi." Cole writes that during the time of the COTTAGE TO LET tour, "Alastair became a sort of father figure for me. He also had this wealth of acting experience and a career as an elocution and drama lecturer behind him." Cole credits Alastair with changing his broad cockney accent. "He had this tremendous passion for teaching, especially to young people entering the acting profession. ... He was a tremendous influence on my career, but ... he never formally coached me as an actor in the way a student might be coached at drama school. ... one of his great talents was his ability to pass on his wisdom in a subtle almost imperceptible way."

As a theatre producer/director, Cole states that Alastair "was also innovative in promoting his plays. He began to put A-boards outside (the theatre) containing all the critiques of the play. The good ones were printed in black and the bad ones in red, so passers-by could immediately compare them." "Alastair was demanding as far as work was concerned and, if you were not up to scratch, he would let you know it. ... he was such a perfectionist that sometimes he just forgot how talented he really was." "He would put his own money into every play that he directed. He didn't mind rehearsing in a room for three weeks, but he insisted that for the fourth week he wanted a theatre, a stage, the set and the props, so by the end of the fourth week we'd have run the play for a week. He could be subtly harsh in his direction occasionally.

LAUGHTER IN PARADISE, Cole says, "Alastair had a fantastic scene" where he tries to get arrested for shoplifting. "He did the whole scene in one take and it was absolutely brilliant. There was no dialogue in the scene and Alastair's performance harked back to the days of the black-and-white silent comedy films of the 1920s."

SCROOGE, Cole writes, "Alastair's performance throughout was outstanding and the final scenes of Scrooge's redemption, when he is given another chance by the people he has wronged, have always remained with me as an example of what is meant by the term 'consummate professional'. To my mind, he set a standard for portraying Scrooge to which I feel that all actors should aspire but I doubt that many can achieve."

BELLES OF ST. TRINIAN'S, Cole states: "Alastair was initially asked to play the secondary role of Clarence Fritton while [Gilliat and Launder] looked for a strong female lead. Eventually, when the search seemed to be getting nowhere, Alastair suggested, 'Why don't I play both parts?' It was quite an innovative suggestion at the time but after a preliminary investigation into whether the existing technology could handle it, [Gilliat and Launder] decided to go with the idea." Cole feels "for the sheer pleasure it gave, I think THE BELLES OF ST. TRINIAN'S may well have been the best [film] of all."

THE GREEN MAN, Cole says: "I went to see the play and thought it would make a marvelous film, so I bought a copy and showed it to Alastair and he thought the same. He took it to [authors Gilliat and Launder] and said we would like to make it into a film." Alastair directed but was not given screen credit "because he did not have trade-union accreditation as a film director. ... My favorite scene was when I go to the house where Alastair's character lives to ask him to call the police because I think there is a body hidden in the piano in the house where I am demonstrating a vacuum cleaner. I don't know at that stage that he was involved in the crime. It is a fast-paced scene combining my panic at having discovered a body and Alastair's panic at trying to hide the fact that he was an accomplice. ... We rehearsed it a few times and he eventually told me, 'Forget about the lines, just act.' On the final take we were both completely ad-libbing but it worked well and turned out to be a highly amusing scene."

Of Alastair's death, Cole writes, "I felt it personally because of the enormous influence he had had on my life. He was certainly my mentor and very much a father figure. For an actor, it's not just a matter of memorising a part, you need to think about what you are doing and to maintain a certain stillness, and that was one of the great things he taught me. On top of that, he was one of my greatest friends. Over the years, we performed in 11 films and at least 9 stage plays together. He had a big, awesome personality and was so wonderful to work with – and always terribly funny. Of all the stage performances of my career, it is the ones I did with Alastair that I seem to look back on now with the greatest fondness. The two that stand out most for me are DR. ANGELUS and MR. BOLFRY. I think my performances in those were among the best of my career and I owe that entirely to Alastair. And if it wasn't for him, I might still have my cockney accent! ... He was a meticulous craftsman and took his work very seriously indeed but he was uncomfortable with the fame that came from it."

Researched by Judy Harris

Visit my homepage at http://judyharris.net/index.htm

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