|
George Cole in 2005 |
George Cole's first screen
role was in 1941. Since that time he has appeared in an endless number of
theatre, film,
television and radio roles. To try and begin looking at his life seems almost an
impossible thing to do. Here we try to highlight the main points of George's
career and a little bit of background information on how he came to be one of
the most famous British actors and performers of the modern age.
In 2004 the owner of
this site was fortunate enough to see George Cole perform live at the
Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne in the comedy 'Party Piece'. George
Cole was as good as he has ever been and it was simply a joy to watch.
The second he appeared on the stage he received a round of applause and
this page is a just a small tribute to his work over the last 60 years
or so! Not mentioned here is the amount of work that George Cole has
done for charity over the years which includes work for the
Royal National
Institute of the Blind and for
Children with Leukaemia. |
The Early Years
George was born in Tooting, South London in
1925. He spent a lot of his childhood alone. At the age of 13, he discovered he
was adopted when he found his birth certificate looking for Christmas presents
on top of a wardrobe. Despite this, he was not upset as he had a wonderful
mother and father.
A Cottage To Let (1941)
One of his first jobs was delivering
newspapers around London and here he saw an advertisement looking for a young
boy for a London musical. In 1939, he attended the audition where he performed
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar "Friends, Romans, Countrymen lend me your ears". The
same afternoon he was shipped off to Blackpool with an understudy role (person
ready to take on another's role) in 'The White Horse Inn'. Interestingly, this
same show also starred the late Gretchen Franklin, known to most British people
in her role as Ethel Skinner from Eastenders. In 1940, while starring in this
show, George received the shocking news that his father had died.
Alastair Sim
|
Alastair Sim
|
George's next role was in the play 'A
Cottage To Let'. It was here that he was introduced to Alastair Sim, who proved
to be one of the major players in setting up his career as an actor. At this
time, around 1940, Alastair Sim was a very established and well respected actor
both on stage and screen. George Cole described Alastair Sim as father figure to
him in many ways - a man with a huge personality who was also very funny.
As the
play proved such a hit on the stage, it was decided to make it into a film -
which was George Cole's first acting role! In this film, he played the part of
young cockney evacuee Ronald, shipped off to the countryside (shown above). What is
interesting about this film is that in real life, Alastair Sim and his wife
Naomi actually took the young George and his mother to the countryside during
bombing raids around the same time. George's mother is reported not to have been
entirely happy with living in the country and soon moved back to London. George
Cole however, stayed with the Sims and was told that if he wanted to improve his
chances of getting acting work he should really spend time working on his
accent. |
Working on his accent must of worked,
because in 1942 George Cole landed his second role as the character of Charlie in the
1942 film 'Those Kids From Town'. In 1943, at the age of only 18 George Cole
served in the RAF, finally leaving in 1947 to pursue acting work - this time as
an adult. George is noted as saying this was his first experience of adult
acting and at the time proved quite difficult, especially convincing Alastair
Sim that he was able to do it as an adult and not just as a child actor.
1950 - 1970
|
In 1950, George Cole appeared in the film
'Morning Departure' which included
some of the top actors of the day, including Sir John Mills and Sir Richard
Attenborough.
As a result of the film's success, he went on to appear in the radio show 'Life of
Bliss' where he played the lead character David Alexander Bliss - in 1960 the
show transferred to television. In this role, George Cole met with the late
Queen Mother as she toured the BBC studios. It was during the 1950s though that
George Cole established himself in Britain's top acting elite. In 1954 George married fellow actress Eileen Moore, together they had two
children. They starred together in the Alastair Sim film entitled 'The Green Man' (available to purchase on DVD).
In 1954 George
landed the role of spiv 'Flash Harry' in the film 'The Belles of St Trinian's'
(see picture). It would be this role that would set him up as one of
Britain's finest celebrities. |
Flash Harry |
Between 1954 and 1967 three more St Trinian's films were made and if George Cole
wasn't already household name at this time, he certainly became one as a
result of Flash Harry. It was as Flash Harry that Hollywood recognised him, and in 1963
he appeared in 'Cleopatra'
alongside Elizabeth Taylor, Richard
Burton and Rex Harrison. It is reported that the filming of Cleopatra took an
astounding 18
months to complete and that relations on the set were less than amicable. When Cleopatra ended
in 1962, George Cole separated from his first wife and went
to live in the countryside with his two children.
Not soon after, while holding
auditions for the play 'The Waiting Game', George met Penny Morrell. George Cole
has stated it was definitely "Love at first sight" and they soon wed. Interestingly for Minder
fans, Penny Morrell later appears in the series six episode of Minder entitled
'Arthur is Dead, Long Live Arthur' - see the Episode Guide for more details
about this episode.
1970s
|
Menace (1970) |
During the late sixties George Cole appeared in a number of TV roles and in 1970
starred in the horror film 'The Vampire Lovers'. This was the first of many
horror-type roles that he played around this time. In 1970 he appeared alongside Annette
Crosbie (more famous for her role in the BBC Comedy "One Foot In The Grave") in
the short-lived BBC thriller series entitled 'Menace'. Unfortunately only two
episodes remain in the BBC archives of this show which luckily includes
the episode starring George Cole. Unfortunately, this has not been shown
on TV for many years and due to the absence of other such shows is
unlikely to see and official release in the near future. In 'Menace'
George Cole plays the part
of Douglas Willett, a husband turned psychopath. The following year (1971) he appeared
in the horror film 'Fright' which interestingly also starred Dennis Waterman. Apparently, it
wasn't until many years later that they both realised they had starred
in the same film all those years ago. |
During the remainder of the
1970s George Cole appeared in a few films though mostly TV roles. Most notable
are his appearances in The Sweeney episode 'Tomorrow Man' again alongside Dennis
Waterman and as a London bomber in the Return of The Saint episode entitled 'The
Armageddon Alternative'. There is a rumour that he appeared in the 1974 film
'Gone in 60 Seconds' as Atlee Jackson, unfortunately this isn't at all true as
this character was played by another George Cole, a black American actor!
George Cole became a
household name yet again in 1979 when he was cast as Arthur Daley in 'Minder'.
Rumours exist (with very little supporting evidence) that actor Denholm Elliot
was the original choice to play Arthur Daley but it is now hard to imagine
anyone other than George Cole doing the job! Dennis Waterman has described the
relationship between him and George Cole on set as 'an excellent piece of
casting'.
1980s & 1990s
George Cole received the OBE in 1992
During the 1980s George didn't only work on
'Minder'. In 1982 he appeared
alongside Peter Bowles in the TV comedy series "The Bounder" and in 1985 in the
BBC series "Blott On The Landscape". In 1992, his astounding contribution to
radio, television and film was awarded and he received the OBE. During the 1990s
George continued work both in film and television roles including "Root Into
Europe" (1992), "An Independent Man" (1995), "Mary Reilly" (1997), "Dad" (1997)
and since 2000 in "Station Jim" (2001) and Bodily Harm (2002).
|
In July and August 2004 George Cole appeared in on stage in Eastbourne in the comedy
'Party
Piece'. He received a massive round of applause the second he appeared on the
stage. He continued with this play until early 2005, moving with the play to
London, Coventry and Malvern. As always it has received excellent reviews all
over.
George's
final appearance as Arthur Daley was in a short clip especially
made after the final transmission of the last episode on the
17th March 1994 (shown here on the right). He also appeared as
part of the Umbrella DVD releases providing commentaries for
several episodes. George Cole has provided us with over 60 years of entertainment - he is
proven time and time again to be
one of the most versatile actors of the 20th century, a truly monumental person
of our time and minder.org would like to thank him for all he has done to bring
so many hours of enjoyment to other people! |
 |
For further information,
check out the IMDB record for George Cole
here.
Last updated :
8th June 2012 by jno
DISCLAIMER: minder.org is in no way connected with Leon Griffiths, Thames Television, Euston Films or FremantleMedia. The views expressed here are in no way related to these or have they been endorsed as such. This is a non-profit making website and the views and opinions expressed here are only done so to
compliment the work done in producing the British TV show Minder. Where as this site aims to ensure that information presented here is correct, we accept no responsibility for any mistakes made. Any audio or visual material downloaded as a result of visiting this site is done so under the strict agreement that this material is for sampling only and that it will be removed within a subsequent 24 hour
period.