Alan Wheatley (19 April 1907 in Tolworth, Surrey - 30 August 1991) was a former radio announcer who turned to stage and screen acting in the 1930's and was much seen in British films, being a television actor during the black and white era.
During the Second World War, Wheatley left his job as an industrial psychologist to spend five years as a BBC radio announcer, before starting an acting career. The suave, debonair actor with the golden voice made his film debut in the 1936 movie Conquest of the Air, which was not released until four years later.
He is probably best known for his role as The Sheriff of Nottingham in the TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood in the 1950s, where he played the malevolent adversary to Richard Greene's squeaky clean Robin Hood. Wheatley was the Sheriff in the first three series but only had a few appearances in the fourth and final series, his place being taken by a Deputy Sheriff played by John Arnatt. The programme which began in 1955, was one of ITV's first adventure series, made with a view to getting a screening in America. It lasted for four years and 143 episodes, with Wheatley's character becoming one of those whom viewers loved to hate.
He also had roles in Danger Man and The Avengers; and was the first person killed by a Dalek in an episode of Doctor Who, when he played Thal leader Temnosus in 1964. He was also an early Sherlock Holmes in a 1951 BBC TV series.
His film credits include Brighton Rock (1947); Spaceways (1953); Caesar and Cleopatra; The Rake's Progress; Calling Paul Temple; Simon and Laura and A Jolly Bad Fellow (1963) amongst others. He also appeared in Inn for Trouble, a big screen spin-off from the popular TV comedy series The Larkins.
Wheatley also managed to appear in two versions of the thriller play Rope in 1950 and 1953.
As well as television and film, stage performances were dominant in his career and he could be seen to majestic effect in Clifford Bax's The House of Borgia in 1935, as well as taking the lead in This Way to the Tomb - performed in London and Paris. He also played the tormented soul, Harry, in The Family Reunion.
This popular and well-respected actor died in 1991 of a heart attack, at the age of 84.
External links
Alan Wheatley at the Internet Movie Database
This UK biographical article related to television is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
This article about a United Kingdom film and TV actor or actress is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
NewPP limit report
Preprocessor node count: 413/1000000
Post-expand include size: 2158/2048000 bytes
Template argument size: 643/2048000 bytes
Expensive parser function count: 0/500
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Wheatley"
Categories: 1907 births | 1991 deaths | English film actors | English television actors | People from Surrey | British television biography stubs | United Kingdom screen actor stubs
Views
Article
Discussion
