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Torin Thatcher

Torin Thatcher

Birthday: 1905-01-15 | Place of Birth: Bombay, British India, India

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Torin Thatcher (15 January 1905 - 4 March 1981) was an English actor born in Bombay, British India, India), to English parents. He was an imposing, powerfully built figure noted for his flashy portrayals of screen villains. He was educated in England at Bedford School and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He worked as a schoolmaster before first appearing on the London stage in 1927 and then entering British films in 1934. He appeared in the 1937 Old Vic stage production of Hamlet, in which Laurence Olivier made his first appearance in the title role, opposite Vivien Leigh as Ophelia. During the Second World War, he served with the Royal Artillery and was demobilized with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Thatcher appeared in classic British films of the late 1930s and 1940s, including Major Barbara (1941) and Great Expectations (1946), in which he played Bentley Drummle. He moved to Hollywood in the 1950s. He was constantly in demand, invariably lending his looming figure and baleful countenance to sinister or stern roles in popular costume thrillers such as The Crimson Pirate (1952), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), The Robe (1953) (as the disapproving father of Richard Burton's character), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), Helen of Troy (1956), Darby's Rangers (1958), and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). He also appeared in the Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard 1962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty. He returned to the stage quite frequently, notably on Broadway, in such esteemed productions as Edward, My Son (1948), That Lady (1949) and Billy Budd (1951). In 1959, he portrayed Captain Keller in the award-winning play The Miracle Worker with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. All of these plays were filmed, but Thatcher did not appear in the movie versions. Also a steady fixture on television, he appeared in such made-for-TV films as adaptations of A. J. Cronin's Beyond This Place (1957) and The Citadel (1960),Bonanza(1961), and Brenda Starr (1976). He also played the title role in a Philco Television Playhouse version of Othello and acted in a CBS production of Beyond This Place (1957). Thatcher died of cancer on March 4, 1981, in Thousand Oaks, California, in the Los Angeles area.

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Known For

Acting

Year
Title

Role

1968
1967
The King's Pirate

as    Captain Cullen

1965
The Sandpiper

as    le juge Thompson

1962
Jack the Giant Killer

as    Pendragon

1958
Darby's Rangers

as    Sergeant McTavish

1958
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad

as    Sokurah the Magician

1957
Band of Angels

as    Capt. Canavan

1957
Witness for the Prosecution

as    Mr. Myers

1956
Helen of Troy

as    Ulysses

1955
Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing

as    Humphrey Palmer-Jones

1955
Lady Godiva of Coventry

as    Lord Godwin

1954
Bengal Brigade

as    Colonel Morrow

1954
Knock on Wood

as    Godfrey Langston

1954
The Black Shield of Falworth

as    Sir James

1953
The Desert Rats

as    Col. Barney White

1953
Houdini

as    Otto

1953
The Robe

as    Sen. Gallio

1952
The Crimson Pirate

as    Humble Bellows

1952
Affair in Trinidad

as    Inspector Smythe

1952
The Snows of Kilimanjaro

as    Johnson

1952
Blackbeard, the Pirate

as    Sir Henry Morgan