Alfie Bass
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Alfie Bass | |
---|---|
Born | Abraham Basalinsky 10 April 1916 Bethnal Green, London, England |
Died | 16 July 1987 Barnet, London, England | (aged 71)
Years active | 1943–1982 |
Spouse |
Beryl Bryson (m. 1946) |
Children | 2 |
Alfie Bass (born Abraham Basalinsky, 10 April 1916[1] – 16 July 1987) was an English actor. He was born in Bethnal Green, London, the youngest in a Jewish family with ten children; his parents had left Russia many years before he was born.[2] He appeared in a variety of stage, film, television and radio productions throughout his career.
Personal life
Alfie Bass was born Abraham Basalinsky in
At the outbreak of
In 1946, he married Beryl Bryson, a dressmaker, in Liverpool. They had a son and a daughter.[3]
Stage career
Bass's acting career began at London's Unity Theatre in the late 1930s, appearing in Plant in the Sun alongside Paul Robeson, and as the pantomime King in Babes In the Wood.
His stage career included plays by
Film career
Bass first appeared on film in
He starred in Roman Polanski's vampire film The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) (British title The Dance of the Vampires) as innkeeper Yoine Shagal with his daughter Sarah played by Sharon Tate. In the course of the film, he and his daughter become vampires. When a maid tries to scare him off with a crucifix, he responds with "Oy, have you got the wrong vampire!".
Bass also appeared in the "Pride" segment of
In his book British Film Character Actors (1982), Terence Pettigrew remembers, "there was a time when no British film seemed complete without Alfie Bass popping up in some guise or other. Basically playing the same character, he has hopped chirpily from drama to comedy and into costume pieces and back like an energised sparrow. To all of these, he has added an engaging warmth and sanguinity".
Television and radio
Bass appeared as a poacher rescued by Robin Hood in the first episode of The Adventures of Robin Hood starring Richard Greene, in episode 2 "The Moneylender", as well as in episode 10 of the first series which was titled "The Ordeal". He also appeared in two later episodes during season two titled "The Goldmaker" (episode 5) and "The Goldmaker's Return" (episode 22) as Lepidus, the roguish alchemist, rescued from the Sheriff by Little John (Archie Duncan). He appeared in The Army Game (1957–61), a British TV comedy series, as Private Montague 'Excused Boots' Bisley, and its sequel Bootsie and Snudge from 1960 to 1963 (there was also a one series revival in colour in 1974), working at a Gentlemen's club with Bill Fraser as 'Claude Snudge' and Clive Dunn as 'Henry Beerbohm Johnson'. Bass additionally played the character in another spin-off, Foreign Affairs, in 1964. Bass also played Lemuel "Lemmy" Barnet in the third and fourth series of the landmark 1950s science fiction BBC Radio series Journey into Space.
He was a subject of the television programme This Is Your Life in March 1970, when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews.
He continued working throughout the 1970s and 80s, particularly in the TV series'
Bass appeared in a 1979 episode of the ITV drama series Danger UXB: Just Like a Woman, as a family man with an unexploded bomb in his back garden.
Bass played a memorable Silas Wegg in the BBC's 1976 adaptation of Dickens's Our Mutual Friend. He also played Isaac Rag in a notable recurring character role in the 1979-1980 Dick Turpin series, and Morrie Levin, a shrewd accountant, in the Minder episode The Son Also Rises (1982).[9]
He also guest starred in two episodes of the British comedy television
Recording career
In 1955, Bass recorded the novelty song "Pity the Downtrodden Landlord".[10] It was issued by the folk music label Topic Records on a 78rpm single, backed with "Housing Repairs And Rents Act", written by Fred Dallas; on both sides, Bass was accompanied by "The Four Bailiffs".[11]
With his fellow cast members from
Death
Alfie Bass died on 16 July 1987 in
Selected filmography
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- The Bells Go Down (1943) – (uncredited)
- Johnny Frenchman (1945) – Corporal
- Brief Encounter (1945) – Waiter at the Royal (uncredited)
- Holiday Camp (1947) – Redcoat
- Jassy (1947) – Witness (uncredited)
- It Always Rains on Sunday (1947) – Dicey
- Vice Versa (1948) – 1st Urchin
- The Monkey's Paw (1948) – Speedway Track Manager
- Man on the Run (1949) – Bert the Barge Mate
- The Hasty Heart (1949) – Orderly
- Boys in Brown (1949) – 'Basher' Walker
- Stage Fright (1950) – Stage Hand With Microphone (uncredited)
- Pool of London (1951) – Alf, a henchman
- Talk of a Million (1951) – Lorcan
- The Galloping Major (1951) – Charlie – the newsboy
- The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) – Shorty
- High Treason (1951) – Albert Brewer (uncredited)
- Brandy for the Parson (1952) – Dallyn
- Treasure Hunt (1952) – Tipster (uncredited)
- Derby Day (1952) – Spider Wilkes
- The Planter's Wife (1952) – Soldier (uncredited)
- Made in Heaven (1952) – Bert Jenkins
- Top of the Form (1953) – Artie Jones
- The Square Ring (1953) – Frank Forbes
- Murder by Proxy (1954) – Ernie
- Time Is My Enemy (1954) – Ernie Gordon
- The Angel Who Pawned Her Harp (1954) – Lennox
- The Passing Stranger (1954) – Harry
- To Dorothy a Son (1954) – Cab Driver
- Svengali (1954) – Carrell
- The Night My Number Came Up (1955) – The Soldier
- The Ship That Died of Shame (1955) – Sailor on 1087 (uncredited)
- A Kid for Two Farthings (1955) – Alf the Bird Man (uncredited)
- Make Me an Offer (1955) – Fred Frames
- King's Rhapsody (1955) – Man in Crowd (uncredited)
- Jumping for Joy (1956) – Blagg
- Behind the Headlines (1956) – Sammy
- Child in the House (1956) – Ticket Collector
- Sailor Beware! (1956) – Organist (uncredited)
- A Touch of the Sun (1956) – May
- The Bespoke Overcoat - Fender
- No Road Back (1957) – Rudge Harvey
- Carry On Admiral (1957) – Orderly (uncredited)
- Hell Drivers(1957) – Tinker
- A Tale of Two Cities (1958) – Jerry Cruncher
- I Was Monty's Double (1958) – The Small Man
- I Only Arsked! (1958) – Excused Boots Bisley
- The Millionairess (1960) – Fish Curer
- Help! (1965) – Doorman
- Bindle (One of Them Days) (1966) – Joseph Bindle
- Doctor in Clover (1966) – Fleming
- Alfie (1966) – Harry
- The Sandwich Man (1966) – Yachtsman
- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966) – Gatekeeper
- A Challenge for Robin Hood (1967) – Pie Merchant
- The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967) – Shagal, the Inn-Keeper
- Up the Junction (1968) – Charlie
- The Fixer (1968) – Potseikin (uncredited)
- The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins (1971) – Mr. Spencer (segment "Pride")
- Come Play with Me (1977) – Kelly / Luigi
- Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) – Fernet
- Moonraker (1979) – consumptive Italian
- High Rise Donkey (1980) – Donkey Derby photographer
Footnotes
- ^ General Register Office index of deaths, London Barnet registration district, July 1987, Vol. 11 Page 205
- ^ "Alfie Bass Obituary". The Jewish Chronicle. 24 July 1987. p. 14.
- ^ required.)
- ^ "Alfie Bass: Comedy and pathos on stage and screen". The Times. London. 19 July 1987. p. 10.
- ^ 'Alfie Bass' at Theatricalia
- ^ Colin Chambers The Story of Unity Theatre, London (1990)
- ^ Green, Stanley, Encyclopedia Of The Musical Theatre, Da Capo Press 1980, p. 121
- ^ Alfie Bass biography accessed 26 Jun 2007
- ^ "#3.8 the Son Also Rises".
- ISBN 9781351775205. Retrieved 27 December 2015.
- ^ 78 Record: Alfie Bass And The Four Bailiffs - Pity The Downtrodden Landlord (1955), retrieved 12 December 2020
- ^ Michael Medwin, Bernard Bresslaw, Alfie Bass And Leslie Fyson - The Signature Tune Of The Army Game, retrieved 11 December 2020
- ^ Alfie Bass - Villikens And His Dinah, retrieved 11 December 2020
External links
- Alfie Bass at IMDb
- Alfie Bass at the BFI's Screenonline
- Alfie Bass at British Comedy Guide