Wednesday 4 February 2015

Barry Stanton


Barry Stanton - British actor


Barry Stanton:

A classical actor who knows his way around his 'King Lear' and his 'Hamlet' (he plays Claudius in the bizarre Quentin Crisp 1976 version), but also an archetypal 1970s 'big bloke', often playing a plain clothes copper who's a bit handy in a scrap, or the sort of hefty hard-nut who gets up slowly in a pub to show his size, before getting an unlikely duffing-up from a leading man. Barry Stanton appears in a fair bit of TV drama from the late-'60s on, such as 'The Saint', 'Z Cars', 'The Baron', 'Manhunt', 'Survivors',  'The Protectors', 'The Sweeney', 'Minder', and 'The Professionals'. He also turns up in the sadly-lost supernatural drama serial 'Witch Hunt' from 1967, high on many TV collector's list of BBC holy grails.   

As Noma in the 'Doctor Who' story 'The Twin Dilemma'
As Jim Hacker's press officer in 'Yes, Prime Minister'
In more recent years, he has been given less generic TV roles, such as his turns as a Jacondan alien in the first Colin Baker story for Doctor Who', 1984's 'The Twin Dilemma', and as Tory press officer Malcolm Warren in 'Yes, Prime Minister'. There was also the Shakespeare play cycle 'The Wars of the Roses' televised in 1990. 
   
As Claudius in the adventurous 'Hamlet' (1976) which featured Helen
Mirren as both Gertrude and Ophelia, and Quentin Crisp as Polonius 

'Demons Of The Mind (1972)

Film roles are also more varied: aside from 'Sweeney 2' (1978), there was Hammer horror 'Demons Of The Mind' (1972), 'Leon the Pig Farmer' (1993) and 'Robin Hood' (1991) - not the Kevin Costner 'Prince of Thieves' one from that year, another one starring Patrick Bergin and Uma Thurman. He's in the Jackie Chan kung-fu in Victorian England romp, Shanghai Knights (2003), and portrays the playwright/MP Sheridan in 'The Madness of King George' (1994).

As the Lord Chancellor in, 'Shanghai Knights' (2003)
A rare leading role came in the Roy Clarke sitcom 'Mann's Best Friends' in which he appeared with the likes of Fulton McKay, Patricia Brake, and Bernard Bresslaw. Sadly, it seems to have disappeared without a trace. He's also the splendidly over-acting postman who delivers the vampire Alexei Sayle in the 'Young Ones' episode 'Nasty'. 

As miserly boss Mr Grayson in 'Tucker's Luck' 

4 comments:

  1. Is he still alive, we shared the same Granddad crowther There was bad feeling in the family as my granddad separated from his first wife and my mother was born out of wedlock and his first wife called my mother bastard as she was a .baby in pram. Non the less she was always proud to see barry Stanton on tv when she was alive

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    1. My wife is a relative of his her auntie was madge,he qas her mums cousin and she called him uncle Barry,he grew up qith her mum Andrea Wakerley but born Crowthor,uncle Sam kept the name Crowthorne (the one qith 6 toes )and made became a stanton because she married one and Hernan didn't like him ,and she would like to know if he's still alive and would like to get in touch with Barry and Lloyd, as her mum died in 2008 and she's been trying to find them since to let them know ,so if any information please let me know ,my email is richardheyes@yahoo.co.uk thanks

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  2. My mum used to go to art class with his mum madge stanton, she used to take me to her house in New Ash Green. She introduced me to Vimto, an unknown to many cordial at the time.

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  3. Saw him in 'The Professionals', playing an assassin who was not the sharpest chisel in the toolbox.

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