† Jan 7 1924 – May 10 2017
Although a superstar of children's TV in the
'70s thanks to his tour de force portrayal of time-travelling wizard
'Catweazle', and later as the cosily sinister Crowman in 'Worzel
Gummidge', he also performed in dozens of classic TV series and a few
feature films. With his cadaverous appearance and gimlet stare, he often
played officious clerks, dry churchmen and the occasional foreign
criminal, in shows like 'The Saint', 'The Avengers', 'Black Beauty', and
'Van Der Valk', and was splendidly sleazy as Mr Ganglion in 'Blott On
The Landscape'.
He's strongly associated with television, but it's a delight when he crops up in the odd feature film. See, for example: various Hammer and Amicus-type horrors like 'Dracula' (1958), 'Camp On Blood Island' (1958), 'Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed' (1969), The House That Dripped Blood' (1971) - with future Worzel Gummidge Jon Pertwee - and 'Tales From The Crypt' (1972). Other slight surprises include 'King Rat' (1965), 'Suspect' (1960) and 'Tom & Viv' (1994).
A legend. This is why.
Geoffrey Bayldon - imdb profile
Geoffrey Bayldon was hilarious in Blott On the Landscape, stoutly defending the honour of the horsey Lady Maud and displaying an almost crazed delight towards a collection of saucy photographs.
ReplyDeleteGeoffrey was interviewed for a DVD which paid tribute to B-picture producers the Danziger brothers and he said you had to be dreadfully bad not to be offered a role in one of their films. I'm sure there were lesser actors who turned their noses up at "doing a Danziger", however Geoffrey and Francis Matthews were among those accomplished performers who had no such qualms.