Nicholas Smith

Nicholas Smith:

† 5 March 1934 – 6 December 2015*

Some actors are so strongly associated with one character that their own name becomes almost irrelevant. Such is the case with Nicholas Smith, or Mr Rumbold, as you almost certainly said when you opened this page. As the ineffectual menswear department manager of Grace Bros, he was the stooge and feed man for the endless innuendo and banter of the cast of 'Are You Being Served?'. The pilot episode was originally rejected by the BBC, but was screened as filler during the 1972 Olympics following the Black September terrorist attack. A series followed and it ran for ten seasons until finally getting the axe in 1985. He also showed up for the dreary spin-off, 'Grace and Favour'. Perhaps he gets the last laugh though, as he is the only regular member of the cast still with us in 2014.

An unlikely bad guy in 'The Avengers'

He's done other stuff, of course. He appears in the early 'Doctor Who' story 'Dalek Invasion of Earth' with William Hartnell, and he had a regular mid-'70s stint in 'Z-Cars' as  PC Yates. He's in a couple of classic 'Avengers' (the Mrs Peel era 'Escape in Time' and the Tara King episode 'The Super Secret Cypher Snatch'), as well as 'The Champions' and 'The Saint' (including the long-forgotten, low-budget 1968 movie spin-off 'The Fiction Makers').

Coming a cropper after failing to assassinate Alexandra Bastedo
in an episode of 'The Champions'  

To that we can add, 'The Frost Report', 'The Freewheelers', 'Ace Of Wands', 'The Sweeney', 'The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes' and 'Budgie'. Recently he has provided voices for the 'Wallace & Gromit' movies, but earlier on there were a few visible cinema roles, including 'The Twelve Chairs (1970), John Huston's 'A Walk with Love and Death' (1969), and the Sammy Davis Jr/Peter Lawford romp 'Salt & Pepper' (1968), although perhaps after the success of 'Are You Being Served?' it became difficult to cast him against type, ie Rumbold.  

In the Mel Brooks comedy 'The Twelve Chairs' (1970)

'Revolver', an obscure sketch series on BBC Digital only, with
a unique mix of vintage comedy stars and edgy new writers   

*update Dec 7, 2015: Really very sad to mark the passing of Nicholas Smith. He was one of the most fascinatingly underrated of the actors I researched for this blog. 

Nicholas Smith - imdb

Hugh Walters

Hugh Walters:

† March 2nd 1939 - February 13 2015

Compact, birdlike actor with a knack for careful speech patterns. He has turned these to good use playing officious, prissy and occasionally camp comedic roles. In drama, he sticks in the memory for his bravura turn as the wheelchair-bound Vic in 'Survivors' which was neither funny nor fussy, and he was in several 'Doctor Who' stories ('The Chase', 'The Deadly Assassin' and 'Revelation of the Daleks'), as well as episodes of 'Z Cars', 'The New Avengers', 'A Fine Romance', 'The Miss Marple Mysteries', 'Rumpole of the Bailey', 'All Creatures Great and Small', 'Lovejoy' and 'Boon'. He was also Alison's father in the clever Simon Callow/Brenda Blethyn comedy 'Chance in a Million' 

In the Miss Marple TV mystery 'The Body in the Library'

With Eleanor Bron in the 1985 'Doctor Who'
story 'Revelation of the Daleks'

He appears in a few interesting movies: '1984' (1984), 'Brimstone & Treacle' (1982), 'The Missionary' (1982), the floppy Alan Price sequel to 'Alfie', 'Alfie Darling ' (1976), right back to the Terry-Thomas steampunk romp 'Rocket to the Moon' (1967), 'and the Dave Clark Five movie 'Catch Us If You Can' (1965).

In 'The New Avengers'

Hugh Walters-imdb

David Graham

David Graham: 

† July 11 1925 – September 20 2016

Lugubrious, skeletal actor, probably best known for his voiceover work, more specifically for being the voice of both Parker and Brains in Gerry Anderson's 'Thunderbirds', (not to mention Prof Matthew Matic in 'Fireball XL5' and Dr Beaker in 'Supercar'). This alone is obviously enough to guarantee him cult TV legend status, but he was also partly responsible for devising the voices of the Daleks in 'Dr Who' and providing them in more than 30 episodes, as well as appearances in a more dramatic vein such as the scientist Kerensky (pic above) in the Tom Baker-era story 'City Of Death'. 

On set for the early Gerry Anderson series 'Four Feather Falls'

His television roles have also included classic '60s/'70s stuff like 'The Avengers', 'The Saint', 'Danger Man', 'Till Death Us Do Part', 'Callan', 'Timeslip' and 'Ace Of Wands'. By the '80s he was still cropping up in 'When The Boat Comes In' and 'Howard's Way' and has been seen in 'The Bill', and  'Doctors'.   

As a rather sinister foreign policeman in 'Danger Man'

As befits his exalted position as the voice of Brains, he also did a fine job portraying Einstein in the dramatic segments of the 2005 BBC 'Horizon' programme 'Einstein's Unfinished Symphony'.

The admirable Parker in 'Thunderbirds', voiced unforgettably by David Graham

In the unsettling short film 'One For Sorrow' (2011)

David Graham - imdb profile 

His own website is here.

Thanks to Richard Sanderson for the nudge.