Torin Thatcher
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Torin Thatcher (15 January 1905 - 4 March 1981) was an English actor born in Bombay, British India, India), to English parents. He was an imposing, powerfully built figure noted for his flashy portrayals of screen villains.
He was educated in England at Bedford School and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He worked as a schoolmaster before first appearing on the London stage in 1927 and then entering British films in 1934. He appeared in the 1937 Old Vic stage production of Hamlet, in which Laurence Olivier made his first appearance in the title role, opposite Vivien Leigh as Ophelia. During the Second World War, he served with the Royal Artillery and was demobilized with the rank of lieutenant colonel.
Thatcher appeared in classic British films of the late 1930s and 1940s, including Major Barbara (1941) and Great Expectations (1946), in which he played Bentley Drummle. He moved to Hollywood in the 1950s. He was constantly in demand, invariably lending his looming figure and baleful countenance to sinister or stern roles in popular costume thrillers such as The Crimson Pirate (1952), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), The Robe (1953) (as the disapproving father of Richard Burton's character), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), Helen of Troy (1956), Darby's Rangers (1958), and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). He also appeared in the Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard 1962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty.
He returned to the stage quite frequently, notably on Broadway, in such esteemed productions as Edward, My Son (1948), That Lady (1949) and Billy Budd (1951). In 1959, he portrayed Captain Keller in the award-winning play The Miracle Worker with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. All of these plays were filmed, but Thatcher did not appear in the movie versions.
Also a steady fixture on television, he appeared in such made-for-TV films as adaptations of A. J. Cronin's Beyond This Place (1957) and The Citadel (1960),Bonanza(1961), and Brenda Starr (1976). He also played the title role in a Philco Television Playhouse version of Othello and acted in a CBS production of Beyond This Place (1957).
Thatcher died of cancer on March 4, 1981, in Thousand Oaks, California, in the Los Angeles area.
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Full filmography
- Perry Mason (1957) as Walter Frazer
- Star Trek (1966) as Marplon
- Peter Gunn (1958)
- The Philco Television Playhouse (1948)
- The Philco Television Playhouse (1948) as Othello
- Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre (1963)
- Mission: Impossible (1966) as Archbishop Djelvas
- Mission: Impossible (1966) as General Rados Adolph Gollan
- Daniel Boone (1964) as President John Adams
- Daniel Boone (1964) as Cyrus Blake / Enoch Blake
- The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962) as Alva Hardwicke
- Get Smart (1965) as Dr. Braam
- Thriller (1960) as Jeremy Teal
- Lost in Space (1965) as The Space Trader
- Gunsmoke (1955) as John Tyson
- Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre (1956) as Ab Richards
- Climax! (1954) as John Philippson
- Climax! (1954) as Fred Beresford
- Land of the Giants (1968) as Dr. Berger
- Night Gallery (1970) as Captain of the Lusitania (segment "Lone Survivor")
- The Time Tunnel (1966) as Dr. Everett Holland
- Telephone Time (1956)
- One Step Beyond (1959) as Earl of Culdane
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955) as Constable Johnson