Bernard Bresslaw

A RADA scholar who was spotted by Laurence Olivier, Bernard Bresslaw got professional security from the "Carry On" films but was typecast (as TV's The Army Game (1957) had done earlier).

Although officially starring in 14 Carry On films, Bresslaw did appear in one other: Carry on Nurse (1959). The legs of Terence Longdon were deemed to be too thin and scrawny looking, so Bresslaw's were used as stand-ins for the scene where Joan Sims gives him a bath.

He was the father of James Bresslaw, who has been interviewed about him for documentaries on the Carry On series and Doctor Who (1963).

He featured as Varga, the lead villain in the 1967 Doctor Who (1963) story The Ice Warriors. Even though all the actors playing the aliens were over six feet tall, Bresslaw towered over them. Sonny Caldinez, who played an Ice Warrior in the story, stated in a 2004 interview that Bresslaw "was the only man that could make me feel small.".

He made great efforts to prepare for roles, for example learning genuine Swahili phrases for Carry on Up the Jungle (1970).

Bresslaw, together with Miriam Margolyes, appeared with English comedienne Maureen Lipman in a series of British Telecom advertisements in the late 1980s. Bresslaw and Margoyles played Gerald and Dolly, a nervous couple who drop in unannounced on Lipman's character Beattie and her husband Harry.

He was offered the role of King Ferdinand of Spain in Carry On Columbus (1992), but turned it down. The role went to Leslie Phillips.