Bryan Pringle
Bryan Pringle | |
---|---|
Pringle in The Early Bird (1965) | |
Born |
Glascote, Tamworth, Staffordshire, England, UK | 19 January 1935
Died |
15 May 2002 67) London, England, UK | (aged
Years active | 1960–2002 |
Spouse(s) |
Anne Jameson (1958–1999) (her death) |
Bryan Pringle (19 January 1935 – 15 May 2002) was an English actor who appeared for decades in television, film and theatre productions.[1]
Life and career
Born in Glascote, Tamworth, Staffordshire but brought up in the Lancashire town of Bolton he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. In 1958, he married character actress Anne Jameson; together they had two children. She died in 1999.
Film work
Pringle appeared in many films, beginning with Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) as the cuckolded husband, Jack. He also appeared alongside Norman Wisdom in the 1965 film The Early Bird as the treacherous rival milkman, Austin, the role for which he is perhaps best remembered. He continued to be cast in many independent films, such as Brazil, B. Monkey, and Drowning By Numbers.
Television work
Pringle also made regular television appearances, mainly as a character actor. He was a regular in director Ken Russell's work, commencing with the part of Charles Pooter in Diary of a Nobody, made for BBC 2, in 1964. He played Len Wiles, the adoptive father of Terry Wiles in the BBC drama On Giant's Shoulders (1979). He appeared in the 80's brilliantly funny TV production of Joe Orton's "Loot" as the police constable with Timothy West and Prunella Scales, Dinsdale Lansden, Tessa Peake-Jones, and Tyler Butterworth.
In 1980 he played the role of Albert Case, the leader of a group of villains in The Professionals episode Weekend in the Country.[2] Other notable appearances were as Barker in the Inspector Morse episode "Deceived by Flight" in 1989, as landlord Arthur Pringle in Series 2 of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet, and as a friend of Eddie Royle in EastEnders in 1991. Pringle also appeared in the mid 1980s in a well-known TV commercial advertising Heineken beer, in which he plays a cockney voice tutor attempting to teach a posh girl how to say with a cockney accent "The wa'er in Major'a don' tas' li' wot id ough' 'a." (written as "The water in Majorca don't taste like what it ought to") instead of her normal "The water in Majorca doesn't taste quite how it should." After a sip of the beer she begins to pronounce it with a cockney accent.[3]
Pringle officially opened the first Meadows Festival in Edinburgh in 1975.
Death
In later life Pringle lived in Northamptonshire, where he died on 15 May 2002; his body was buried alongside his wife's in the cemetery of St Laurence Church in Brafield on the Green.[4]
Selected filmography
- The Challenge (1960) - Sergeant
- Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) - Jack
- The Sundowners (1960) - PC Thomas (uncredited)
- The Bulldog Breed (1960) - PTI (uncredited)
- Spare the Rod (1961) - Drunken father (uncredited)
- H.M.S. Defiant (1962) - Sgt. Kneebone
- The Brain (1962) - Dance-Hall MC (uncredited)
- Lawrence of Arabia (1962) - Driver (uncredited)
- Ring of Spies (1964) - Surveillance Man (uncredited)
- French Dressing (1964) - The Mayor
- The Early Bird (1965) - Austin
- How I Won the War (1967) - Reporter
- Berserk! (1967) - Constable Bradford
- Diamonds for Breakfast (1968) - Police Sergeant
- Spring and Port Wine (1970) - Bowler 3
- Cromwell (1970) - Trooper Hawkins (scenes deleted)
- The Boy Friend (1971) - Percy Parkhill / Percy Browne
- Mister Quilp (1975) - Mr. Garland
- Jabberwocky (1977) - Guard at Gate
- Bullshot (1983) - Waiter
- The Young Visiters (1984) - Minnit the Butler
- Brazil (1985) - Spiro
- Turtle Diary (1985) - Zoo Receptionist (uncredited)
- Haunted Honeymoon (1986) - Pfister
- Consuming Passions (1988) - Gateman
- Drowning by Numbers (1988) - Jake
- Getting It Right (1989) - Mr. Lamb
- Crimestrike (1990) - Super
- Three Men and a Little Lady (1990) - Old Englishman
- American Friends (1991) - Haskell
- The Steal (1995) - Cecil, Bank Doorman
- Restoration (1995) - Watchman
- Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997) - Father Gilbert
- The Legend of 1900 (1998) - Civil Servant
- B. Monkey (1998) - Goodchild
- Darkness Falls (1999) - Mr. Hayter
- Lover's Prayer (2001) - Stepan
Television roles
Year | Title | Role | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
1966 | The Caramel Crisis | McWithers | |
1968 to 1970 | The Dustbinmen | Cheese & Egg | |
1974 | The Pallisers | Mr. Monk | |
1974 | Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em | Mr. Jackson | |
1975 | The Growing Pains of PC Penrose | Sergeant Flagg | |
1979 | Henry V | Pistol | |
1981 | When The Boat Comes In | Doughty | |
1983 | Last of the Summer Wine | Ludovic | |
1985 | Auf Wiedersehen, Pet | Arthur Pringle | |
1988 | All Creatures Great and Small | Grimsdale | |
1990 | Wish Me Luck | Father Martin | |
1991 | "Prime Suspect" | Felix Norman | |
1997 | A Prince Among Men | Vince Hibbert | |
1997 | Snow White: A Tale of Terror | Father Gilbert | |
2003 | Barbara | Mr. Cooper | (Last appearance) |
References
- ↑ Stevens, Christopher (2010). Born Brilliant: The Life Of Kenneth Williams. John Murray. p. 285. ISBN 1-84854-195-3.
- ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0679344/
- ↑ "Accents: Cockney – the water in Majorca - Classless English". Sites.google.com. Retrieved 2012-06-12.
- ↑ http://www.martin-nicholson.info/cemetery/cemeterybrafield.htm
External links
- Bryan Pringle at the Internet Movie Database
- Obituary in The Independent
- Obituary in The Telegraph
- Obituary in The Guardian