Anton Rodgers

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Anton Rodgers bigraphy, stories - Actor

Anton Rodgers : biography

df=y October 1 – 2007-12-1

Anton Rodgers (born Anthony Rodgers;http://ftvdb.bfi.org.uk/sift/individual/16060 10 January 1933 – 1 December 2007) was an English actor and occasional director. He performed on stage, in film, in television dramas and sitcoms and in animation.

Television

  • The Old Curiosity Shop as Dick Swiveller
  • Danger Man as Attala
  • Man in a Suitcase as Max Stein
  • Gideon’s Way as Peter in the episode, "The Nightlifers." (1966)
  • The Prisoner episode "The Schizoid Man" as Number Two.
  • The Saint episode "A Double in Diamonds" (1967) as Pierre
  • Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode 16 "When the Spirit Moves You" as Calvin Bream
  • The Elusive Pimpernel (1969) as Sir Percy Blakeney
  • Upstairs, Downstairs "The Mistress and the Maids" (1972) as Scone
  • Thomas & Sarah (1979) episode "Love Into Three Won’t Go" as Richard DeBrassey
  • Jason King as Philippe de Brion
  • The Duchess of Duke Street "A Test of Love" as Newdigate
  • Murder Most English as Detective Inspector Purbright
  • Rumpole of the Bailey: Rumpole and the Honourable Member as Ken Aspen
  • Lillie as Edward Langtry
  • Fresh Fields as William Fields
  • French Fields as William Fields
  • Noah’s Ark as Noah Kirby
  • Disraeli as Bentinck
  • Zodiac as David Gradley
  • After the War as Samuel Jordan
  • May to December as Alec Callender
  • Midsomer Murders "Market for Murder" as Lord James Chetwood
  • Longford (2006) as William Whitelaw
  • C. S. Lewis: Beyond Narnia (2005) as C. S. Lewis

Selected filmography

  • The Spider’s Web (1960)
  • Rotten to the Core (1965)
  • Scrooge (1970)
  • The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970)
  • The Day of the Jackal (1973)
  • East of Elephant Rock (1977)
  • The Fourth Protocol (1987)
  • Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)
  • Impromptu (1989)
  • Son of the Pink Panther (1993)
  • Secret Passage (2004)
  • The Merchant of Venice (2004)

Animation

  • Old Bear Stories as Narrator, Old Bear, Bramwell Brown, Little Bear, Rabbit and many others
  • Wide-Eye as Wide-Eye

Life and career

Rodgers was born in Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, the son of Leonore (née Wood) and William Robert Rodgers.http://www.filmreference.com/film/87/Anton-Rodgers.html His early education was at Westminster School. Later he was educated at the Italia Conti Academy and LAMDA. He appeared on stage from the age of 14. He was well known for his television performances, specifically his long-running roles in the television sitcoms Fresh Fields in the 1980s and May to December from 1989 to 1994.

However, he also had a long career as an actor on both stage and film, with his stage roles ranging from contemporary comedy and satirical farce to Restoration comedy, Ibsen, Shaw and Wilde and Peter Nichols. He appeared in films such as The Fourth Protocol (1987), The Day of the Jackal (1973) and Scrooge (1970) (in which he performed the Academy Award-nominated Best Original Song "Thank You Very Much"). He also narrated the children’s animated TV series Old Bear Stories and appeared as Andre, the comically corrupt French policeman who aided Michael Caine in his romantic/financial schemes in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels .

Rodgers’ second wife was the actress Elizabeth Garvie, whom he met while filming the 1982 drama series, Something in Disguise. They often appeared on stage together, and toured giving readings from the works of Jane Austen and Robert Browning, among others.