For nearly fifty years, Maurice Denham has been an integral part of British cinema. A brilliant character actor, he has starred in more than a hundred feature and television films during his life. Bald, energetic, possessing a tenacious look Denham was always recognizable, but this recognition did not prevent him from playing a variety of roles, without limiting himself to any one role.
He was born on December 23, 1909 in Beckenham, Kent. Since childhood, dreaming of the stage, he, however, did
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For nearly fifty years, Maurice Denham has been an integral part of British cinema. A brilliant character actor, he has starred in more than a hundred feature and television films during his life. Bald, energetic, possessing a tenacious look Denham was always recognizable, but this recognition did not prevent him from playing a variety of roles, without limiting himself to any one role.
He was born on December 23, 1909 in Beckenham, Kent. Since childhood, dreaming of the stage, he, however, did not immediately become an actor: after graduating from school, he changed several professions until he became an electrical engineer. His engineering career culminated in the installation of elevators in the main building of the BBC. His acting career began in 1934 in Hull in the repertory theater, and two years later he made his professional debut in London. Later he played in the theaters of London’s West End. At the same time, he started working for BBC radio. In the forties, he gained fame thanks to the comedy programs “This Man Again” and “Deep in the Swamp”. His slightly eccentric characters (Denham simultaneously voiced several characters) to some extent anticipated the appearance of the popular in the sixties “Goon Show” by Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan.
In 1947, Denham appeared in a small role in the film based on the novel by Graham Green “The Man Inside” (Dir. Bernard Knowles) with the participation of Richard Attenborough. Since then, he has starred in a variety of British films, playing mainly police officers, gentleman-like crooks, military officials, clergymen and politicians. For all the variety of his characters, most of them had an intrinsic sense of importance. His extensive filmography includes the classic comedies “Million Pound Bank Ticket” (1954, dir. Ronald Nim), “Our Man in Havana” (1960, dir. Carol Reed), “These Amazing People in Their Flying Cars” (1965, dir. Ken Annakin), the famous adaptation of Charles Dickens’s novel “Oliver Twist” (1948, dir. David Lean), the historical drama “Captain Boycot” (1947, dir. Frank Launder), the military-battle “Sink Bismarcken!” (1960, reg.). He also played a small role in the directorial debut of Peter Medack, the black comedy Negative (1968). His talent as a “man with a thousand voices” was again in demand in 1954, when he voiced the animated film “The Zoo farm” (directed by Joy Batchelor, John Hales). Having gone from petty crook Jack Rufus in the drama London Belongs to Me (1948, Sidney Gilliat) to Graville in the psychological film Sunday, Damned Sunday (1971, John Schlesinger) and General Colbert in the political detective The Jackal Day (1973, Fred Zinneman), Denham, who starred mainly in small roles, did not lose his position and continued to be one of the most busy character actors in Britain. No less popular brought him roles in the television series "Joint Dreamers" (1972-1973), "Prison term" (jargon, in the original - Oatmeal, Porridge, 1977) and "Edward and Mrs. Simpson" (1978). On the theatrical stage during his life he had to play in a variety of plays - from Shakespeare's Macbeth in London's Old Vic (1961) to Chekhov's Uncle Vanya in Hampstead (1979). The actor continued to act in films until the end of the nineties. Among his later films are the romantic drama starring Anthony Hopkins Charring Cross Road, 84 (1986, David Jones) and the comedy Memento Mori (1992, Jack Clayton). In 1992, Denham was awarded the rank of officer of the British Empire.
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