Raymond Huntley(1904-1990)
- Actor
- Soundtrack
Birmingham-born Raymond Huntley was one of those instantly
recognisable, mannered types that popped up in classic British films of
the 1940's and 50's. Tall and austere, he had a somewhat mean,
sour-faced look, accentuated whenever staring with icy disdain from
behind horn-rimmed spectacles. This, and his trademark dry delivery,
made Huntley such perfect casting for an extensive array of
ever-so-superior, humourless civil servants, mean-spirited bank
managers, dullish clubroom snobs, smug business types, dour undertakers
or sinister cold war spooks. Earlier in his career, Huntley essayed
rather more overtly menacing characters, effectively typecast during
the war years as Nazi officers
('Pimpernel' Smith (1941)) or
German spies
(Inspector Hornleigh Goes to It (1941)).
It is hard to pick out two outstanding performances above all others,
but he was arguably at his best as the local bank manager Wix in
Passport to Pimlico (1949),
emphatic in his greed to reap whatever benefits from the Burgundian
declaration of independence; as the irascible boffin Laxton-Jones in
Secret Flight (1946); and
as Henry Chester, made resentful by his illness, in the Sanatorium
segment of Trio (1950). Towards the end of
his career, Huntley achieved his greatest popularity when he was cast
as the grumpy family solicitor, Sir Geoffrey Dillon, in TV's
Upstairs, Downstairs (1971).
Educated at King Edward's School, Raymond Huntley made his theatrical debut with the Birmingham Repertory Company in 1922. By the age of twenty-one, he played a septuagenarian farm labourer and was consequently hired as a comedian by a North Country revue for a starting salary of ten pounds a week. Huntley was reputedly the first actor to play Dracula on stage (in Hamilton Deane's hit 1927 London adaptation of the original novel), though it is fair to point out that an earlier reading of the play took place on May 18th, 1897, at the Lyceum Theatre, arranged by none other than the author Bram Stoker himself. In any event, Huntley's superb handling of the character established the direction his future career would take.
Educated at King Edward's School, Raymond Huntley made his theatrical debut with the Birmingham Repertory Company in 1922. By the age of twenty-one, he played a septuagenarian farm labourer and was consequently hired as a comedian by a North Country revue for a starting salary of ten pounds a week. Huntley was reputedly the first actor to play Dracula on stage (in Hamilton Deane's hit 1927 London adaptation of the original novel), though it is fair to point out that an earlier reading of the play took place on May 18th, 1897, at the Lyceum Theatre, arranged by none other than the author Bram Stoker himself. In any event, Huntley's superb handling of the character established the direction his future career would take.
