Donald Pleasence

Donald Henry Pleasence (5 October 1919 – 2 February 1995 ) was an English actor.

After working as the clerk-in-charge at Swinton railway station, he decided that he wanted to be a professional actor, taking up a placement with the Jersey Repertory Company in 1939.

In December 1939, Pleasence initially refused conscription into the British Armed Forces, registering as a conscientious objector, but changed his stance in autumn 1940, after the attacks upon London by the Luftwaffe, and volunteered with the Royal Air Force.

He served as aircraft wireless-operator with No. 166 Squadron in Bomber Command, with which he flew almost sixty raids against the Axis Powers over occupied Europe.

On 31 August 1944, his Lancaster NE112 was shot down during an attack on Agenville, France, and he was captured and imprisoned in the German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft I.

Pleasence produced and acted in many plays for the entertainment of his fellow captives.

After the war and his release, he was discharged from the RAF in 1946.

Returning to acting after the war, Pleasence resumed working in repertory theatre companies in Birmingham and Bristol.

Pleasence made his television debut in I Want to Be a Doctor (1946).

In the 1950s, Pleasence's stage work included performing as Willie Mossop in a 1952 production of Hobson's Choice at the Arts Theatre, London and as Dauphin in Jean Anouilh's The Lark (1956).

He began his career on stage in the West End before having a screen career, which included starring in a 1954 BBC adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, before playing numerous supporting and character roles in films including RAF Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe in The Great Escape (1963), the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film You Only Live Twice (1967), SEN 5241 in THX 1138 (1971), and the deranged Clarence "Doc" Tydon in Wake in Fright (1971).

He received positive critical attention for his role as Syme in the BBC version of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954) from the novel by George Orwell.

The adaptation was by Nigel Kneale and featured Peter Cushing in the lead role of Winston Smith.

Pleasence made his big-screen debut with The Beachcomber (1954).

Pleasence played Prince John in several episodes of the ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood (1956–1958).

In Tony Richardson's film of Look Back in Anger (1959), he plays a vindictive market inspector opposite Richard Burton.

In 1960, Pleasence gained excellent notices as the tramp in Harold Pinter's The Caretaker at the Arts Theatre, a role he would again play in a 1990 revival.

Other stage work in the 1960s included Anouilh's Poor Bitos (1963–64) and Robert Shaw's The Man in the Glass Booth (1967), for which he won the London Variety Award for Stage Actor of the Year in 1968.

He appeared twice with Patrick McGoohan in the British spy series, Danger Man, in episodes "Position of Trust" (1960) and "Find and Return" (1961).

Pleasence's first appearance in America was in an episode of The Twilight Zone, playing an aging teacher at a boys' school in the episode "The Changing of the Guard" (1962).

In 1963, he appeared in an episode of The Outer Limits titled "The Man with the Power".

In 1966, he also guest starred in an episode of The Fugitive entitled "With Strings Attached".

Pleasence's later stage work included performing in a double bill of Pinter plays, The Basement and Tea Party, at the Duchess Theatre in 1970.

In 1973, Pleasence played a sympathetic murderer in an episode of Columbo entitled "Any Old Port in a Storm".

Also that year, he played a supporting role in David Winters' musical television adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Pleasence starred as psychiatrist Dr. Samuel Loomis in Halloween (1978) and four of its sequels, a role for which he was nominated for a Saturn Award for Best Actor.

The series' popularity and critical success led to a resurgent career for Pleasence, who appeared in numerous American and European-produced horror and thriller films.

In 1978, he played a scout, Sam Purchas in an adaptation of James A. Michener's Centennial.

He also portrayed a murderer captured by Mrs. Columbo in "Murder Is a Parlor Game" (1979).

He collaborated with Halloween director John Carpenter twice more, as the President of the United States in Escape from New York (1981) and as the Priest in Prince of Darkness (1987).

Pleasence was born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, the son of Alice (née Armitage) and Thomas Stanley Pleasence, a railway station master.

He was brought up as a strict Methodist in the small village of Grimoldby, Lincolnshire.

He received his formal education at Crosby Junior School, Scunthorpe and Ecclesfield Grammar School in Sheffield.

He hosted the 1981 Halloween episode of Saturday Night Live with music guest Fear.

Pleasence starred as the Reverend Septimus Harding in the BBC's TV series The Barchester Chronicles (1982).

In this series, his daughter Angela Pleasence played his onscreen daughter Susan.

Some notable early roles include Parsons in 1984 (1956), and minor roles opposite Alec Guinness in Barnacle Bill (1957) and Dirk Bogarde in The Wind Cannot Read (1958).

In 1986, Pleasence joined Ronald Lacey and Polly Jo Pleasence for the television thriller Into the Darkness.

Pleasence and Michael Nader portrayed the villains in 1988's The Great Escape II: The Untold Story, which costar Christopher Reeve explained as not being a remake of the 1963 original film and being based on Paul Brickhill's non-fiction account The Great Escape.

Noting his involvement in the original film, Joan Hanauer wrote that Pleasence had "graduated to an S.S. villain, and he is a marvel of soft-spoken, almost finicky evil."