Old Mr. Grace
09-19-2005, 11:18 AM
He played Mr. Thorpe, the junior partner in Thorpe, Thorpe, & Thorpe.
The Times-London (UK)
Nov. 30, 1993
Michael Bilton, actor, died on November 5 aged 73. He was born on December 14, 1919. MICHAEL BILTON was prevented from making his name as a serious stage actor by an old war wound he was crippled with arthritis in later years, and could never have found the stamina for rehearsals and nightly performances on a regular basis. But, although he could not be called a household name, his crumpled features were certainly a familiar sight to viewers in television series such as Waiting for God, where he played the aging Lothario, Basil, and To the Manor Born, in the role of the chauffeur, Ned, employed by Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton, played by Penelope Keith. Perhaps his best known performance was in an advertisement for Yellow Pages.
Bilton had a long and useful career in the ranks behind him by the time this much-repeated advertisement was first shown in 1989. In it Bilton played a very frail gardener who is terrified his employers will sack him after he becomes too weak to wield their lawnmower (they later touchingly provide him with a sit-on tractor model, hunted down through Yellow Pages). In real life, Bilton was far too physically delicate to look after his own garden and was in constant pain throughout filming. But he was pleased, finally, to be noticed: "I've been acting for 45 years," he said, "but for the first time ever people are asking for my autograph."
Michael Bilton was educated at a preparatory school in Scarborough and Nymers College, Hull. As a second lieutenant in the second world war, he was badly wounded in the stomach on the first day of the Battle of Alamein. After a long convalescence, he began his career as an actor, first in the repertory company at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing. Later he found steady work in television and radio as a character actor, particularly noted for his convincing range of dialects East Riding, Geordie, Welsh and Cockney.
His film credits were not numerous, although he appeared in A Taste of Honey (1961), with Norman Wisdom in The Early Bird (1965), in Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972) and as Kim Philby in The Fourth Protocol (1987).
But it was in To the Manor Born that Bilton found a permanent niche in the memories of the viewing public. Following his portrayal of Fforbes-Hamilton's chauffeur, he was cast as a butler in Granada's adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1982), as Mr Macey in the BBC's Silas Marner (1984), and had cameo roles in sitcoms such as Terry and June, Don't Wait Up and One Foot in the Grave. The director of To the Manor Born, Gareth Gwenlan, then cast him as the woman-chasing Basil, an inmate of the Bayview Retirement Village in his new comedy series Waiting for God.
He was married and divorced twice.
The Times-London (UK)
Nov. 30, 1993
Michael Bilton, actor, died on November 5 aged 73. He was born on December 14, 1919. MICHAEL BILTON was prevented from making his name as a serious stage actor by an old war wound he was crippled with arthritis in later years, and could never have found the stamina for rehearsals and nightly performances on a regular basis. But, although he could not be called a household name, his crumpled features were certainly a familiar sight to viewers in television series such as Waiting for God, where he played the aging Lothario, Basil, and To the Manor Born, in the role of the chauffeur, Ned, employed by Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton, played by Penelope Keith. Perhaps his best known performance was in an advertisement for Yellow Pages.
Bilton had a long and useful career in the ranks behind him by the time this much-repeated advertisement was first shown in 1989. In it Bilton played a very frail gardener who is terrified his employers will sack him after he becomes too weak to wield their lawnmower (they later touchingly provide him with a sit-on tractor model, hunted down through Yellow Pages). In real life, Bilton was far too physically delicate to look after his own garden and was in constant pain throughout filming. But he was pleased, finally, to be noticed: "I've been acting for 45 years," he said, "but for the first time ever people are asking for my autograph."
Michael Bilton was educated at a preparatory school in Scarborough and Nymers College, Hull. As a second lieutenant in the second world war, he was badly wounded in the stomach on the first day of the Battle of Alamein. After a long convalescence, he began his career as an actor, first in the repertory company at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing. Later he found steady work in television and radio as a character actor, particularly noted for his convincing range of dialects East Riding, Geordie, Welsh and Cockney.
His film credits were not numerous, although he appeared in A Taste of Honey (1961), with Norman Wisdom in The Early Bird (1965), in Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972) and as Kim Philby in The Fourth Protocol (1987).
But it was in To the Manor Born that Bilton found a permanent niche in the memories of the viewing public. Following his portrayal of Fforbes-Hamilton's chauffeur, he was cast as a butler in Granada's adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited (1982), as Mr Macey in the BBC's Silas Marner (1984), and had cameo roles in sitcoms such as Terry and June, Don't Wait Up and One Foot in the Grave. The director of To the Manor Born, Gareth Gwenlan, then cast him as the woman-chasing Basil, an inmate of the Bayview Retirement Village in his new comedy series Waiting for God.
He was married and divorced twice.