Sydney Tafler

Last updated

Sydney Tafler
Sydney Tafler.jpg
Born(1916-07-31)31 July 1916
Hackney, London, England [1]
Died8 November 1979(1979-11-08) (aged 63)
Richmond upon Thames, Surrey, England [2]
Education Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
OccupationActor
Years active1936–1980
Spouse Joy Shelton (1944–1979)

Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 – 8 November 1979) was an English actor who after having started his career on stage, was best remembered for numerous appearances in films and television from the 1940s to the 1970s. [3]

Contents

Personal life

Tafler was born into a Jewish family, the son of Eva (née Kosky) and Mark Tafler, an antique dealer. [4] [5] His sister, Hylda, married the film director Lewis Gilbert. Another sister, Sheila, was also an actress. [6]

He was married to the actress Joy Shelton from 1941 until his death [7] from cancer; they had three children – two sons, Jeremy and Jonathan, and a daughter, Jennifer, who became a child actress.

Career

After two years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Tafler first appeared on stage in London's West End in 1936, with Sir Seymour Hicks in The Man in Dress Clothes. His other stage roles included the menacing character of Nat Goldberg in a production of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, directed by the playwright; [8] a role he reprised in William Friedkin's 1968 film version, alongside Robert Shaw and Patrick Magee.

On British television he appeared alongside Sid James in Citizen James . His other television work included Angel Pavement, The Gentle Killers , The Infernal Machine, Focus, Dixon of Dock Green , Wodehouse Playhouse , and Hadleigh . He appeared in many films from 1947 to 1977, including The Lavender Hill Mob, The Sea Shall Not Have Them, and Alfie, frequently being directed by his brother-in-law Lewis Gilbert.

He most commonly played spiv characters, one notable exception being the film Reach for the Sky (1956) in which he played the sympathetic prosthetics expert to Douglas Bader. [9] There again, he appeared briefly in a drily comic role as a uniformed policeman in the film The Cockleshell Heroes (also 1956). His film career ended with a featured role as the captain of the supertanker Liparus in the popular James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977).

Selected filmography

Film

Television

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurence Naismith</span> English actor (1908-1992)

Laurence Naismith was an English actor. He made numerous film and television appearances, including starring roles in the musical films Scrooge (1970) and the children's ghost film The Amazing Mr. Blunden (1972). He also had memorable roles as Captain Edward Smith of the RMS Titanic in A Night to Remember (1958), the First Sea Lord in Sink the Bismarck! (1960), and Argus in Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Percy Helton</span> American actor (1894–1971)

Percy Alfred Helton was an American stage, film, and television actor. He was one of the most familiar faces and voices in Hollywood of the 1950s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russell Waters</span> British actor

Russell Waters was a Scottish film actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jesse White (actor)</span> American actor (1917–1997)

Jesse White was an American actor who was best known for his portrayal as "Ol' Lonely" the repairman in Maytag television commercials from 1967 to 1988.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Gordon</span> British actor

Colin Gordon was a British actor Although primarily a stage actor he made numerous appearances on television and in cinema films, generally in comedies. His stage career was mainly in the West End, but he was seen in the provinces in some touring productions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Haggerty</span> American actor (1914–1988)

Don Haggerty was an American actor of film and television.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Huntley</span> English actor (1904–1990)

Horace Raymond Huntley was an English actor who appeared in dozens of British films from the 1930s to the 1970s. He also appeared in the ITV period drama Upstairs, Downstairs as the pragmatic family solicitor Sir Geoffrey Dillon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Newland</span> American actor

John Newland was an American director, actor, television producer, and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Pate</span> Australian actor

Michael Pate OAM was an Australian actor, writer, director, and producer, who also worked prolifically as a supporting actor in Hollywood films and American Television during the 1950s and 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willis Bouchey</span> American actor (1907–1977)

Willis Bouchey was an American character actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Birch (actor)</span> American actor (1912–1969)

Paul Birch was an American actor. He was a film star of 39 movies, 50 stage dramas, and numerous television series, including the Hallmark Hall of Fame (1951).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Woodbridge (actor)</span> English actor (1907–1973)

George Arthur Woodbridge was an English actor who appeared in films, television, and theatre ranging from the 1930s to the 1970s. Woodbridge's ruddy-cheeked complexion and West Country accent meant he often played publicans, policemen or yokels, most prominently in horror and comedy films alongside Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robin Hughes (actor)</span> British actor

Robin Hughes was a British film and television actor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Danny Green (actor)</span> English actor

Danny Green was an English character actor. He was best known for his role as the slow-witted ex-boxer "One-Round" Lawson in The Ladykillers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Douglas Kennedy (actor)</span> American actor (1915–1973)

Douglas Richards Kennedy was an American actor who appeared in more than 190 films from 1935 to 1973.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fay Roope</span> American actor (1893–1961)

Fay Roope was a Harvard graduate and a character actor who appeared in American theater in New York City from the 1920s through 1950, and in American film and television from 1949 through 1961.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hugh Sanders</span> American actor

Hugh Sanders was an American actor, probably best known for playing the role of Dr. Reynolds in the movie To Kill a Mockingbird.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Gerstle</span> American actor (1915–1970)

Francis M. Gerstle was an American character actor who appeared in supporting roles in numerous films, radio programs and TV shows following World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Foulk</span> American actor (1908–1989)

Robert C. Foulk was an American television and film character actor who portrayed Sheriff H. Miller in the CBS series Lassie from 1958 to 1962.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Ellis (actor, born 1933)</span> American child actor (1933–1973)

Robert Ellis was an American film and television actor in the 1940s and 1950s, who was the last actor to play Henry Aldrich on the radio series The Aldrich Family.

References

  1. "England & Wales Births 1837-2006". Findmypast.co.uk. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  2. "England & Wales Deaths 1837-2007". Findmypast.co.uk. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  3. "Sydney Tafler". British Film Institute . Archived from the original on 13 July 2012. Retrieved 23 April 2014. Born: 31 July 1916, London. Died: 7 November 1979, London.
  4. "England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005". Findmypast.co.uk. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  5. "England & Wales Marriages 1837-2005". Findmypast.co.uk. Retrieved 5 May 2018.
  6. Howard Maxford (2 November 2018). Hammer Complete: The Films, the Personnel, the Company. McFarland. p. 780. ISBN   978-1-4766-2914-8.
  7. McGillivray, David (15 May 2000). "Joy Shelton". The Guardian . Retrieved 2 January 2011.
  8. Plays and Players. Hansom Books. 1974.
  9. "Tafler, Sydney (1916-79)". Screenonline . Retrieved 6 November 2013.