Richard Pearson

Richard de Pearsall Pearson (1 August 1918 – 2 August 2011) was a British character actor who appeared in numerous film, television and stage productions over a period of 65 years. He played leading roles in several London West End plays and also supported Maggie Smith, Robert Morley and others in long-running West End stage productions. His many screen appearances included character parts in three Roman Polanski films.

Biography Richard Pearson was born and brought up in Monmouth. He was educated at Aymestrey Court, Worcester, and at Monmouth School, where his father, Cyril Pearson (1888–1946), taught French.

Richard Pearson's early stage career was interrupted by military service in the Second World War with the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division. He was mentioned in dispatches and left the army with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

He married the actress Patricia Dickson (1927–2014) in 1949. They lived until the late 1950s in Nassau Street, in the Fitzrovia district of London, then in Beckenham, and latterly in Richmond upon Thames. They had two sons, Simon and Patrick; Patrick is also an actor.

In the later years of his life, Pearson suffered from myocardial degeneration. He died on 2 August 2011, the morning after his 93rd birthday.

Film and television Notable films of his career included Brian Desmond Hurst's Scrooge (1951) as well as a brief appearance in John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and cameo roles in three films by Roman Polanski: Macbeth (1971), Tess (1979) and Pirates (1986). Pearson did not make his film début until the age of 32, when he played a sergeant in the motion picture The Girl is Mine (1950). This was followed a year later by his performance as Mr Tupper in Scrooge.

In later years, Pearson is perhaps best known for his role as Mole in Cosgrove Hall's The Wind in the Willows (1983), its subsequent television series, which led on from the original film, and its spin-off programme Oh, Mr. Toad, in all of which he starred alongside David Jason, Peter Sallis and Michael Hordern. He also appeared in episodes of "A Fine Romance, and "One Foot in the Grave" as Victor Meldrew's absent-minded brother, Alfred, in the "Men Behaving Badly" episode "Three Girlfriends", as Gary's father Mr Strang, and as Harry King in "My Good Friend", alongside George Cole and Minnie Driver. He played Mr. Pye in the 1985 TV movie Marple: The Moving Finger. Libel The Butler 1960 Man in the Moon Doctor No. 1 1961 Attempt to Kill Frank Weyman 1962 Guns of Darkness Bastian 1963 The King's Breakfast Violinist

The Comedy Man Advertising Man (uncredited) The Yellow Rolls-Royce Osborn 1966 The Caramel Crisis Cloon

Charlie Bubbles Accountant How I Won the War Old Man at Alamein

Inspector Clouseau Shockley The Strange Affair Constable 1970 The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer Wilting

Sunday Bloody Sunday Patient To Catch a Spy Haldane Macbeth Doctor 1972 Pope Joan Friar Timothy

One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing Sir Geoffrey Royal Flash Duchy Chamberlain

The Blue Bird Bread It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet Granville 1979 Tess Vicar of Marlott 1980 The Mirror Crack'd Doctor Haydock 1983 The Wind in the Willows Mole (voice) TV Movie 1985 Water Foreign Secretary

Pirates Padre Whoops Apocalypse Michael Sumpter (Defence Secretary) 1989 A Tale of Two Toads Mole (voice) TV Movie

Television +YearTitleRoleNotes1954 -

Stage "Pearson was the kind of actor on which the British theatre has always relied: utterly dependable and totally distinctive. His particular forte, with his slightly fluting voice, was for revealing the chink in the armour of middle-class respectability." A Likely Tale by Gerald Savory (1956, with Margaret Rutherford and Robert Morley) The Iron Duchess by William Douglas Home (1957) The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter (1958, creating the role of Stanley, also in the 1960 ITV production) Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw (1981) Lettice and Lovage by Peter Shaffer (1987, as Mr Bardolph, with Maggie Smith and Margaret Tyzack) The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (1993, as Dr Chasuble with Maggie Smith as Lady Bracknell)