Barrie Ingham

Character & Episode: Emil Cavallo-Smith in Vendetta for a Dead Man
Born: 10/02/1932, Halifax, West Yorkshire, England (as Barrie Stanton Ingham)
Died: 23/01/2015, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA

A prolific actor, tall at more than 6 foot (reports vary from 6ft 1½ins to 6ft 3ins), Barrie Ingham made more than two hundred film and television appearances and later in life met with success as an actor in America. Barrie sprang from humble beginnings, born the son of Harold Ingham and Irene Bolton in the then textile town of Halifax, where the family owned and worked in a furniture shop. Barrie was educated at Holy Trinity School and then went to Heath Grammar School, where he appeared in several school plays including The Rivals and Antony and Cleopatra. From 1946, Barrie was a member of the Halifax Thespians, with whom he appeared in productions of The Merry Wives of Windsor, Figure of Fun and Beauty and the Beast. He was also a member of the Halifax Amateur Operatic Society, and appeared in several productions including the Ivor Novello rôles in Dancing Years and Perchance to Dream.

After leaving school, Barrie served with the Royal Artillery. He subsequently opened a branch of the family business in Elland, a market town south of Halifax, which his father took over when Barrie left Halifax in 1956 to become a professional actor and went into repertory theatre in Llandudno. St Helens and Barnsley. He had been variously recommended by Wilfrid Pickles, the popular Halifax-born actor and broadcaster, and Harry Ludlam, a local lawyer and councillor who later became Mayor of Halifax (1965-1966). Barrie then moved to Manchester in November 1956 to join the Library Theatre Company, whose home was then in the basement of Manchester's historic Central Reference Library. Barrie appeared in many of their productions, including The Tempest, Henry V, Ring Around the Moon, A Streetcar Named Desire, Noah and Mine Hostess.

However, it was in the medium of television that Barrie’s career really thrived. He made his first TV appearances shortly after moving to Manchester, the earliest known which is his seventh such appearance, as the lead actor in The Break-Up (12th July 1957). This was a John Hopkins-scripted entry in Granada Workshop, a fortnightly regional drama series consisting of half-hour dramas "chosen from the best of the world's short plays". Sadly, none of the series survives today. Directly after he had performed in the play, he went on three weeks of holidays combined with business, when he travelled to Great Yarmouth for a break and to appear with the Norfolk Repertory Company.

Barrie moved to London on 4th August 1957 to join the capital city's world-renowned Old Vic Company for the coming season, which was to include a role for him in a production of Hamlet. He quickly moulded himself into an in-demand actor, with roles in McFarlane's Way (1959), Danger Man (The Vacation, 1961), The Victorians (1963) and Doctor Who (The Myth Makers, 1965). Coincidentally, it the Doctor Who spin-off movie Dr. Who and the Daleks (also 1965) starring Peter Cushing, that gave Ingham his first major feature film role, as Alydon, a Thal ally of the Doctor.  Within two years of this appearance, Barrie was given his first lead role in features when the legendary Hammer Films came calling, offering him the role of Nottingham's finest in A Challenge for Robin Hood (1967). Top line roles followed on television too, with Barrie playing Sejanus in Granada TV's prestigious The Caesars (1968), a short spell as an ambitious government minister in The Power Game in 1969, and maybe most notably the lead in Hine (1971), playing the title character, an unscrupulous arms dealer.

In the early 1970s, Sir John Gielgud gave Barrie his Broadway debut and he subsequently played in many Broadway musicals, including Copperfield on Broadway, and opposite Angela Lansbury in the London production of Gypsy: A Musical Fable in 1973. This led Barrie to spend time and eventually settle in America, where he appeared in many television shows, though he would still come back to Britain for several television projects.

In a career spanning six decades, Barrie made considerable contributions to many well-known television shows, including The Baron (Long Ago and Far Away, 1966), The Avengers (You Have Just Been Murdered, 1967), The Sweeney (Jack or Knave, 1978) and Bergerac (Fires in the Fall, 1986). In America, he appeared in such shows as Remington Steele (1983), Airwolf (1984), The Fall Guy (1984), Murder She Wrote (1985 and 1993) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (Up the Long Ladder, 1989) as Danilo Odell. His last television appearance was in the miniseries The Triangle in 2005.

Barrie married Tarne Phillips in 1957, and the couple had four children, Catrin, Liane, Francesa and Mali, and eight grandchildren. Barrie and Tarne remained together until he passed away in Palm Beach, Florida, in 2015 aged 82.

Harold Innocent

Character & Episode: Assassin in My Late, Lamented Friend and Partner
Born: 18/04/1933, Coventry, Warwickshire, England (as Harold Sidney Innocent)
Died: 12/09/1993, London, England

Harold Innocent was a respected character actor with more than one hundred film and television credits. As a child, Harold attended Broad Street Secondary Modern School in Coventry. Leaving school he worked for a short time as an office clerk. He soon left for National Service with the Royal Air Force, after which he studied acting at the Birmingham School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. After completing the course, he went into repertory theatre. He later had a spell in Hollywood, where he appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960) and The Twilight Zone (1961), as well other television series such as Have Gun - Will Travel (1960), The Barbara Stanwyck Show (1960 and 1961), Gunsmoke (5 episodes between 1961 and 1962) and Ben Casey (1962).

In 1962 he returned to Britain and began to appear in numerous television shows in his homeland. He was also busy in theatre during most of this time. His main film roles include Brazil (1985), The Tall Guy (1989), Without a Clue (1988), Henry V (1989) and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). He died in 1993 after a short illness.