George Woodbridge (actor)
Encyclopedia
George Woodbridge was an English
character actor
in films and television from the 1930s to the 1970s. Born in Exeter
, Devon
, his ruddy-cheeked complexion and West Country
accent meant he would often be found playing innkeepers, policemen or yokels, most prominently in horror and comedy films.
Making his film debut in 1940 in The Big Blockade
, he went on to appear in films such as Green for Danger
(1946), The Fallen Idol (1949), The Queen of Spades
(1949), Stryker of the Yard
(1953), An Inspector Calls
(1954), and Richard III
(1955).
His horror film appearances include: Dracula
(1958), The Revenge of Frankenstein
(1958), Jack the Ripper (1959), Flesh and the Fiends (1959), The Curse of the Werewolf
(1961), Dracula: Prince of Darkness
(1966), The Reptile
(1966) and Doomwatch
(1972). He also appeared in two M.R. James adaptations on television, in the Mystery and Imagination
episode "Room 13" and the Omnibus
episode "Whistle and I'll Come to You
".
His jovial manner lent itself to comedy films as well, including An Alligator Named Daisy
(1955), Three Men in a Boat
(1956), Two-Way Stretch
(1960), Raising the Wind
(1961), What a Carve Up!
(1961), Only Two Can Play
(1962), Nurse on Wheels
(1963), Heavens Above!
(1963), Carry On Jack
(1963) and Up Pompeii (1971).
He also appeared as the sergeant in the Stryker of the Yard
featurettes during the 1950s.
He first appeared on television before the Second World War, and went on to feature in popular series such Adam Adamant Lives!
, Armchair Theatre
, Benny Hill
, Dixon of Dock Green
, The Forsyte Saga
, The Persuaders!
and Softly Softly
.
He gained popularity late in his career as the titular puppet-maker in the children's TV show Inigo Pipkin. Unfortunately, he died five weeks into the filming of the second series, an occurrence which was dealt with in the programme's storyline. The series continued for another seven years however under the title, Pipkins
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
character actor
Character actor
A character actor is one who predominantly plays unusual or eccentric characters. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a character actor as "an actor who specializes in character parts", defining character part in turn as "an acting role displaying pronounced or unusual characteristics or...
in films and television from the 1930s to the 1970s. Born in Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, his ruddy-cheeked complexion and West Country
West Country
The West Country is an informal term for the area of south western England roughly corresponding to the modern South West England government region. It is often defined to encompass the historic counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset and the City of Bristol, while the counties of...
accent meant he would often be found playing innkeepers, policemen or yokels, most prominently in horror and comedy films.
Making his film debut in 1940 in The Big Blockade
The Big Blockade
The Big Blockade is a 1942 British, black-and-white, comedy-drama, propaganda film, war film, directed by Charles Frend and starring Will Hay, Ronald Shiner as the Shipping Clerk and John Mills. It was produced by Ealing Studios...
, he went on to appear in films such as Green for Danger
Green for Danger (film)
Green for Danger is a 1946 British thriller film, based on the popular 1944 detective novel by Christianna Brand.The book Green for Danger was praised for its clever plot, interesting characters, and wartime hospital setting. The film version, starring Alastair Sim and Trevor Howard, with Sally...
(1946), The Fallen Idol (1949), The Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (1949 film)
The Queen of Spades is a fantasy-horror film based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. It stars Anton Walbrook, Edith Evans and Yvonne Mitchell. A poor Russian officer tries to learn the secret of an aged countess's success at the card table.Despite a limited budget, it was...
(1949), Stryker of the Yard
Stryker of the Yard
Stryker of the Yard is a 1953 British crime film directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Clifford Evans, Susan Stephen, Jack Watling and Eliot Makeham....
(1953), An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls
An Inspector Calls is a play written by English dramatist J. B. Priestley, first performed in 1945 in the Soviet Union and 1946 in the UK. It is considered to be one of Priestley's best known works for the stage and one of the classics of mid-20th century English theatre...
(1954), and Richard III
Richard III (1955 film)
Richard III is a 1955 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's historical play of the same name, also incorporating elements from his Henry VI, Part 3. It was directed and produced by Sir Laurence Olivier, who also played the lead role. The cast includes many noted Shakespearean actors,...
(1955).
His horror film appearances include: Dracula
Dracula (1958 film)
Dracula, also known as Horror of Dracula in the United States, is a 1958 British horror film. It is the first in the series of Hammer Horror films inspired by the Bram Stoker novel Dracula. It was directed by Terence Fisher, and stars Peter Cushing, Michael Gough, Carol Marsh, Melissa Stribling and...
(1958), The Revenge of Frankenstein
The Revenge of Frankenstein
The Revenge of Frankenstein is a 1958 British horror film made by Hammer Film Productions. Directed by Terence Fisher, the film stars Peter Cushing, Francis Matthews, Michael Gwynn and Eunice Gayson....
(1958), Jack the Ripper (1959), Flesh and the Fiends (1959), The Curse of the Werewolf
The Curse of the Werewolf
The Curse of the Werewolf is a British film based on the novel The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore. The film was made by the British film studio Hammer Film Productions and was shot at Bray Studios.-Plot:...
(1961), Dracula: Prince of Darkness
Dracula: Prince of Darkness
Dracula: Prince of Darkness is a 1966 British horror film directed by Terence Fisher for Hammer Studios. The film was photographed in Techniscope by Michael Reed, designed by Bernard Robinson and scored by James Bernard.-Plot:...
(1966), The Reptile
The Reptile
The Reptile is a 1966 horror film made by Hammer Film Productions. It was directed by John Gilling, and starred Noel Willman, Jacqueline Pearce, Ray Barrett, Jennifer Daniel and Michael Ripper.-Plot synopsis:...
(1966) and Doomwatch
Doomwatch
Doomwatch is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC One between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present-day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist , responsible for investigating and combating various...
(1972). He also appeared in two M.R. James adaptations on television, in the Mystery and Imagination
Mystery and Imagination
Mystery and Imagination is a British television anthology series of classic horror and supernatural dramas. Five series were broadcast from 1966 to 1970 by ITV and featured plays based on the works of well-known authors such as Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, M. R. James, and...
episode "Room 13" and the Omnibus
Omnibus (TV series)
Omnibus was an arts-based BBC television documentary series, broadcast on BBC1 in the United Kingdom. It ran from 1967 until 2003, usually being transmitted on Sunday evenings....
episode "Whistle and I'll Come to You
Whistle and I'll Come to You
Whistle and I'll Come to You is the name of two BBC television drama adaptations based on the ghost story "Oh, Whistle, And I'll Come To You, My Lad" by Victorian and Edwardian academic and supernatural writer M. R. James. The story tells the tale of an introverted academic who happens upon a...
".
His jovial manner lent itself to comedy films as well, including An Alligator Named Daisy
An Alligator Named Daisy
An Alligator Named Daisy is a 1955 British comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Donald Sinden, Jeannie Carson, James Robertson Justice, Diana Dors, Roland Culver and Stanley Holloway.-Plot:...
(1955), Three Men in a Boat
Three Men in a Boat (1956 film)
Three Men in a Boat is a 1956 British CinemaScope colour comedy film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Laurence Harvey, Jimmy Edwards, Shirley Eaton and David Thomlinson. It is based on the 1889 novel Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome...
(1956), Two-Way Stretch
Two-Way Stretch
Two-Way Stretch, sometimes titled Nothing Barred, is a 1960 British comedy film, about a group of prisoners who plan to break out of jail, commit a robbery, and then break back into jail again, thus giving them the perfect alibi – that they were behind bars when the robbery occurred...
(1960), Raising the Wind
Raising the Wind (1961 film)
Raising the Wind is a 1961 British comedy film written by Bruce Montgomery and directed by Gerald Thomas. It starred James Robertson Justice, Leslie Phillips, Kenneth Williams, Liz Fraser, Eric Barker and Sid James...
(1961), What a Carve Up!
What a Carve Up! (film)
What a Carve Up! is a 1961 British comedy horror film directed by Pat Jackson. It was released in the United States in 1962 as No Place Like Homicide...
(1961), Only Two Can Play
Only Two Can Play
Only Two Can Play is a 1962 comedy film based on the novel That Uncertain Feeling by Kingsley Amis. Sidney Gilliat directed the film from a screenplay by Bryan Forbes....
(1962), Nurse on Wheels
Nurse on Wheels
Nurse on Wheels is a 1963 British comedy film directed by Gerald Thomas, and starring Juliet Mills, Ronald Lewis, and Joan Sims.Nurse on Wheels shares its cast and production team with the Carry On films, but the film is not an official member of the Carry On series.-Cast:* Juliet Mills as Joanna...
(1963), Heavens Above!
Heavens Above!
Heavens Above! is a 1963 British satirical comedy film starring Peter Sellers, directed by John and Roy Boulting, who also co-wrote along with Frank Harvey, from an idea by Malcolm Muggeridge...
(1963), Carry On Jack
Carry On Jack
Carry on Jack is the eighth movie in the Carry On film series and was released in 1963. Most of the usual Carry On team are missing from this film: only Kenneth Williams and Charles Hawtrey appear throughout. Bernard Cribbins makes the first of his three appearances in a Carry On...
(1963) and Up Pompeii (1971).
He also appeared as the sergeant in the Stryker of the Yard
Stryker of the Yard
Stryker of the Yard is a 1953 British crime film directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Clifford Evans, Susan Stephen, Jack Watling and Eliot Makeham....
featurettes during the 1950s.
He first appeared on television before the Second World War, and went on to feature in popular series such Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives!
Adam Adamant Lives! is a British television series which ran from 1966 to 1967 on the BBC. Proposing that an adventurer born in 1867 had been revived from hibernation in 1966, the show was a comedy adventure that took a satirical look at life in the 1960s through the eyes of an Edwardian .- Character...
, Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre
Armchair Theatre is a British television drama anthology series, which ran on the ITV network from 1956 to 1974. It was originally produced by Associated British Corporation, and later by Thames Television after 1968....
, Benny Hill
Benny Hill
Benny Hill was an English comedian and actor, notable for his long-running television programme The Benny Hill Show.-Early life:...
, Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green
Dixon of Dock Green was a popular BBC television series that ran from 1955 to 1976, and later a radio series. Despite being a drama series, it was initially produced by the BBC's light entertainment department.-Overview:...
, The Forsyte Saga
The Forsyte Saga
The Forsyte Saga is a series of three novels and two interludes published between 1906 and 1921 by John Galsworthy. They chronicle the vicissitudes of the leading members of an upper-middle-class British family, similar to Galsworthy's own...
, The Persuaders!
The Persuaders!
The Persuaders! is a 1971 action/adventure series, produced by ITC Entertainment for initial broadcast on ITV and ABC. It has been called "the last major entry in the cycle of adventure series that had begun eleven years earlier with Danger Man in 1960", as well as "the most ambitious and most...
and Softly Softly
Softly, Softly (TV series)
Softly, Softly is a British television drama series, produced by the BBC and screened on BBC 1 from January 1966. It centred around the work of regional crime squads, plain-clothes CID officers based in the fictional region of Wyvern - supposedly in the Bristol and Chepstow area of the UK...
.
He gained popularity late in his career as the titular puppet-maker in the children's TV show Inigo Pipkin. Unfortunately, he died five weeks into the filming of the second series, an occurrence which was dealt with in the programme's storyline. The series continued for another seven years however under the title, Pipkins
Pipkins
Pipkins was a British children's TV programme. Hartley Hare, Pig, Topov and the gang were the stars of ATV's pre-school series which ran from January 1973 to 29 December 1981....
.
Selected filmography
- The Black Sheep of WhitehallThe Black Sheep of WhitehallThe Black Sheep of Whitehall is a 1942 British, black-and-white, comedy, war film, directed by Will Hay and Basil Dearden, and; starring Will Hay as Professor Will Davis, John Mills and Basil Sydney...
(1942) - Blanche FuryBlanche FuryBlanche Fury is a 1948 drama film starring Valerie Hobson, Stewart Granger and Michael Gough. It was adapted from a novel by Joseph Shearing. In Victorian era England, two schemers will stop at nothing to acquire the Fury estate, even murder.-Plot:...
(1948) - Silent DustSilent DustSilent Dust is a 1949 British drama/thriller film, directed by Lance Comfort and starring Nigel Patrick, Sally Gray, Stephen Murray and Beatrice Campbell. The screenplay was by Michael Pertwee, adapted from his own play The Paragon...
(1949) - Children of Chance (1949)
- Double ConfessionDouble ConfessionDouble Confession is a 1950 British crime film directed by Ken Annakin and starring Derek Farr, Joan Hopkins, Peter Lorre and William Hartnell....
(1950) - Stryker of the YardStryker of the YardStryker of the Yard is a 1953 British crime film directed by Arthur Crabtree and starring Clifford Evans, Susan Stephen, Jack Watling and Eliot Makeham....
(1953) - For Better, for WorseFor Better, for Worse (1954 film)For Better, for Worse is a 1954 British comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson.-Cast:* Dirk Bogarde as Tony Howard* Susan Stephen as Anne Purves* Cecil Parker as Anne's Father* Eileen Herlie as Anne's Mother* Athene Seyler as Miss Mainbrace...
(1954) - Third Party RiskThird Party RiskThird Party Risk is a 1954 British thriller film, directed by Daniel Birt and starring Lloyd Bridges, Simone Silva and Finlay Currie...
(1954) - Passage HomePassage Home-Cast:* Anthony Steel as First Mate Vosper* Peter Finch as Captain Lucky Ryland* Diane Cilento as Ruth Elton* Cyril Cusack as Bohannon the steward* Geoffrey Keen as Ike the bosun* Hugh Griffith as Pettigrew* Duncan Lamont as 1st Mate Llewellyn...
(1955) - An Alligator Named DaisyAn Alligator Named DaisyAn Alligator Named Daisy is a 1955 British comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Donald Sinden, Jeannie Carson, James Robertson Justice, Diana Dors, Roland Culver and Stanley Holloway.-Plot:...
(1955) - EyewitnessEyewitness (1956 film)Eyewitness is a 1956 British thriller film directed by Muriel Box and starring Donald Sinden, Muriel Pavlow, Belinda Lee, Michael Craig, Nigel Stock and Richard Wattis. It was made by the Rank Organisation.-Plot:...
(1956) - The Passionate StrangerThe Passionate StrangerThe Passionate Stranger is a 1957 British drama film, directed by Muriel Box and starring Margaret Leighton and Ralph Richardson. It uses the film within a film device, with the "real" part of the plot shot in black-and-white and the "fictional" element in colour...
(1957) - The MoonrakerThe MoonrakerThe Moonraker is a 1958 British historical drama film set during the English Civil War. It was directed by David MacDonald and starred George Baker, Sylvia Sims, Marius Goring, Gary Raymond, Peter Arne, John Le Mesurier and Patrick Troughton....
(1958) - Two-Way StretchTwo-Way StretchTwo-Way Stretch, sometimes titled Nothing Barred, is a 1960 British comedy film, about a group of prisoners who plan to break out of jail, commit a robbery, and then break back into jail again, thus giving them the perfect alibi – that they were behind bars when the robbery occurred...
(1960) - The Curse of the WerewolfThe Curse of the WerewolfThe Curse of the Werewolf is a British film based on the novel The Werewolf of Paris by Guy Endore. The film was made by the British film studio Hammer Film Productions and was shot at Bray Studios.-Plot:...
(1961) - The Iron Maiden (1962)
- Take a Girl Like YouTake a Girl Like You (film)Take a Girl Like You is a 1970 British comedy film directed by Jonathan Miller and starring Hayley Mills, Oliver Reed, Sheila Hancock, Ronald Lacey, John Bird, Noel Harrison, Aimi MacDonald and Penelope Keith. It was based on the 1960 novel Take a Girl Like You by Kingsley Amis, and was adapted by...
(1970) - Diamonds on WheelsDiamonds on WheelsDiamonds on Wheels is a 1974 British family comedy film directed by Jerome Courtland and starring Patrick Allen, George Sewell and Derek Newark and Barry Jackson....
(1974)