
Torin Thatcher
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Torin Thatcher (15 January 1905 - 4 March 1981) was an English actor born in Bombay, British India, India), to English parents. He was an imposing, powerfully built figure noted for his flashy portrayals of screen villains. He was educated in England at Bedford School and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He worked as a schoolmaster before first appearing on the London stage in 1927 and then entering British films in 1934. He appeared in the 1937 Old Vic stage production of Hamlet, in which Laurence Olivier made his first appearance in the title role, opposite Vivien Leigh as Ophelia. During the Second World War, he served with the Royal Artillery and was demobilized with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Thatcher appeared in classic British films of the late 1930s and 1940s, including Major Barbara (1941) and Great Expectations (1946), in which he played Bentley Drummle. He moved to Hollywood in the 1950s. He was constantly in demand, invariably lending his looming figure and baleful countenance to sinister or stern roles in popular costume thrillers such as The Crimson Pirate (1952), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), The Robe (1953) (as the disapproving father of Richard Burton's character), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), Helen of Troy (1956), Darby's Rangers (1958), and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). He also appeared in the Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard 1962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty. He returned to the stage quite frequently, notably on Broadway, in such esteemed productions as Edward, My Son (1948), That Lady (1949) and Billy Budd (1951). In 1959, he portrayed Captain Keller in the award-winning play The Miracle Worker with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. All of these plays were filmed, but Thatcher did not appear in the movie versions. Also a steady fixture on television, he appeared in such made-for-TV films as adaptations of A. J. Cronin's Beyond This Place (1957) and The Citadel (1960),Bonanza(1961), and Brenda Starr (1976). He also played the title role in a Philco Television Playhouse version of Othello and acted in a CBS production of Beyond This Place (1957). Thatcher died of cancer on March 4, 1981, in Thousand Oaks, California, in the Los Angeles area.
Filmografi
Witness for the Prosecution1957 · Mr. Myers
Great Expectations1946 · Bentley Drummle
Helen of Troy1956 · Ulysses
Houdini1953 · Otto
Istanbul1957 · Douglas Fielding
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad1958 · Sokurah the Magician
Mutiny on the Bounty1962 · Staines
The Robe1953 · Sen. Gallio
Lady Godiva of Coventry1955 · Lord Godwin
Saboteur1942 · Man (uncredited)
The Crimson Pirate1952 · Humble Bellows
The Citadel1960 · Sir Robert Abbey
Jack the Giant Killer1962 · Pendragon
The Snows of Kilimanjaro1952 · Johnson
The King's Pirate1967 · Captain Cullen
So Soon to Die1957 · Inspector Galloway
Young and Innocent1937 · Nobby's Lodging House Caretaker (uncredited)
The Black Shield of Falworth1954 · Sir James
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing1955 · Humphrey Palmer-Jones
Night Train to Munich1940 ·
The Holy Terror1965 · Dr. Poole
Hawaii1966 · Reverend Thorn
Ian Wolfe
Tony Curtis
Alec Guinness
Bernard Miles
Janet Leigh
Jean Simmons
Ruta Lee
John Mills
Elsa Lanchester
Brigitte Bardot
J. Pat O'Malley
William H. O'Brien