Michael Gwynn

Michael Gwynn (30 November 1916 – 29 January 1976) was an English actor whose career spanned 40 years, across a variety of stage, film, and television roles.

Life and career Gwynn was born in Bath, Somerset. He attended Mayfield College near Mayfield, Sussex. During the Second World War he served in East Africa as a major and was adjutant to the 2nd (Nyasaland) Battalion of the King's African Rifles. He married his wife, Margaret Jean (Bartlam) Gwynn in 1940 and they had two children, a son and a daughter.

Gwynn is perhaps best remembered for his role in the first episode of the BBC comedy Fawlty Towers "A Touch of Class" (1975) as the conman "Lord" Melbury who eventually humiliates Basil Fawlty. For Hammer Films, he performed in several productions including the war film The Camp on Blood Island (1958), and Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960), a rare drama film for the studio; he also appeared in one of their horror movies, The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), in which he played a variation of Frankenstein's monster, and Scars of Dracula (1970) in the role of a priest determined to battle Count Dracula. He had a lead role in 1960's Village of the Damned, produced and distributed by MGM-British Studios.

Gwynn also appeared on several adaptations of plays on the Caedmon Records label. Among them were Cyrano de Bergerac, in which he played Le Bret, and Julius Caesar, in which he played Casca. Both productions starred Ralph Richardson in the title roles. Gwynn also appeared in a BBC serialised adaptation of Great Expectations as Joe Gargery in 1959.

Gwynn died on 29 January 1976 in London from a heart attack, aged 59. Earlier that day, he had finished filming on Spawn, a television play for London Weekend Television.

Plays 1956 – A View from the Bridge (opening season) by Arthur Miller; director Peter Brook – Alfieri.

Filmography

Television