Harry Fowler

Henry James Fowler (10 December 1926 – 4 January 2012) was an English character actor in film and television. Over a career lasting more than six decades, he made nearly 200 appearances on screen.

Personal life Fowler was born in Lambeth, south London, on 10 December 1926. As a "near illiterate newspaper boy" making eight shillings a week, he told film historian Brian McFarlane, he was invited on to radio to speak about his life in wartime London.

Fowler died on 4 January 2012. He was survived by his wife and had no children.

During the Second World War, he served as an aircraftman in the Royal Air Force and played a cheerful cockney character with the same job in the films Angels One Five (1952), and made several appearances on children's television during the 1970s, reading on Jackanory and hosting the series Get This and Going a Bundle with Kenny Lynch. His familiar voice was regularly used for TV commercials.

In 1975, Fowler took the part of Eric Lee Fung, described as "a Chinese cockney spiv", in The Melting Pot, a sitcom written by Spike Milligan and Neil Shand. The series was cancelled by the BBC after the first episode had been broadcast.

He was awarded an MBE in 1970, as part of Harold Wilson's Resignation Honours.

In his book British Film Character Actors (1982), Terence Pettigrew wrote that Fowler "was as English as suet pudding ... his characters were neither honest nor irretrievably delinquent, merely wise in the ways of the streets, surviving through a combination of wit and stealth. He had a certain arrogance, but there was an appealing vulnerability, too."

Selected filmography

Those Kids from Town (1942) – Ern Salute John Citizen (1942) – Office Boy (uncredited) Went the Day Well? (1942) – Young George Get Cracking (1943) – (uncredited) The Demi-Paradise (1943) – Small Boy (An Evacuee) (uncredited) Bell-Bottom George (1944) – Boy on Bicycle (uncredited) Champagne Charlie (1944) – 'Orace Give Us the Moon (1944) – Bellboy (uncredited) Don't Take It to Heart (1944) – Telegraph Boy Painted Boats (1945) – His Brother Alf Hue and Cry (1947) – Joe Kirby Trouble in the Air (1948) – (uncredited) A Piece of Cake (1948) – Head Spiv For Them That Trespass (1949) – Dave, Rosie's friend Now Barabbas (1949) – Smith Landfall (1949) – RAF Corporal Orderly (uncredited) Dance Hall (1950) – Amorous Youth (uncredited) Once a Sinner (1950) – Bill James Trio (1950) – Undetermined Secondary Role (uncredited) She Shall Have Murder (1950) – Albert Oates The Dark Man (1951) – 1st Reporter Mister Drake's Duck (1951) – Corporal Scarlet Thread (1951) – Sam There Is Another Sun (1951) – Young Rider Madame Louise (1951) – Trout's Clerk High Treason (1951) – Street Photographer (uncredited) The Promise (1952) The Last Page (1952) – Joe 13 East Street (1952) – (uncredited) I Believe in You (1952) – Hooker Angels One Five (1952) – Airman The Pickwick Papers (1952) – Sam Weller Top of the Form (1953) – Albert A Day to Remember (1953) – Stan Harvey Don't Blame the Stork (1954) – Harry Fenn Conflict of Wings (1954) – Leading Aircraftman 'Buster' Up to His Neck (1954) – Smudge Stock Car (1955) – Monty Albright The Blue Peter (1955) – Charlie Barton Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1956) – Sydney Stanhope Behind the Headlines (1956) – Alfie Home and Away (1956) – Syd Jarvis Town on Trial (1957) – Leslie (Bandleader) West of Suez (1957) – Tommy Booby Trap (1957) – Sammy Lucky Jim (1957) – Cab Driver (uncredited) The Birthday Present (1957) – Charlie The Supreme Secret (1958) – Bluey Soapbox Derby (1958) – Barrow Boy The Diplomatic Corpse (1958) – Knocker Parsons I Was Monty's Double (1958) – Civilian (End Scene) Idol on Parade (1959) – Ron The Heart of a Man (1959) – Razor The Dawn Killer (1959) – Bert Iron Don't Panic Chaps! (1959) – Ackroyd Crooks Anonymous (1962) – Woods Flight from Singapore (1962) – Sgt. Brooks The Longest Day (1962) – British Paratrooper (uncredited) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) – William Potter (uncredited) Tomorrow at Ten (1962) – Smiley Ladies Who Do (1963) – Drill Operator Seventy Deadly Pills (1964) – Covent Garden porter Father Came Too! (1964) Clash by Night (1964) – Doug Roberts The Nanny (1965) – Milkman Life at the Top (1965) – Magic Beans Man Doctor in Clover (1966) – Grafton Secrets of a Windmill Girl (1966) – Harry Start the Revolution Without Me (1970) – Marcel Crossed Swords (1977) – Nipper High Rise Donkey (1980) – Crook Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980) – Buller Bullethead George and Mildred (1980) – Fisher Fanny Hill (1983) – Beggar (uncredited) Body Contact (1987) – Herbert Chicago Joe and the Showgirl (1990) – Morry

Selected TV appearances Dial 999 (TV series) (1959) ("Barge Burglars", episode) – Sandy Gordon The Army Game (1959–1960) – Cpl. 'Flogger' Hoskins Gideons Way (1964) Dixon of Dock Green (1963–1970) – Duncan / Billy Reynolds / Alf Stubbings / Handbag Wilson Z-Cars (1963–1972) – Billy Carrick / Tony / Toff Jackanory (1969–1971) – Storyteller Crown Court (1973) – George Curl Going A Bundle (1976) – himself Minder (1982) – Monty Wiseman In Sickness and in Health (1985–1992) – Harry / milkman Casualty (1986–1992) – George / Terry Super Gran (1987) – Sid Scoundrel Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks (1988) – Harry The Bill (1989–1992) – Alfred Sheldon / Pat Fitzgerald The Impressionable Jon Culshaw (2004) – customer (final appearance)