Douglas Seale

The British classical actor/producer/director Douglas Seale enjoyed a 65-year transatlantic career that included stage, films and television. Born in 1913 the son of Robert Henry Seale and his wife Margaret Law Seale, he was educated at Rutlish, a boys' comprehensive school in West Wimbledon. He displayed an early penchant and skill for art but leaned toward the theatre after receiving encouragement by a teacher who saw his performance in a school play.

He studied for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and took his first professional curtain bow at London's Embassy Theatre in a production of "The Drums Begin" in 1934. He then appeared in repertory until the outbreak of WWII.

He performed with first wife, actress Elaine Wodson, in a 1937 production of "Once in a Lifetime."

He served with the British Army in 1940 and was commissioned in the Royal Signals.

Following demobilization in 1946, Seale joined the Shakespeare Memorial Theater Company for two seasons at Stratford-on-Avon. He extended his noble talents to include stage producing, which included "Caesar and Cleopatra" at the Birmingham Repertory Theater; Shakespeare's "King John" at Stratford-on-Avon and Stratford, Ontario; "Henry V" in Stratford, Connecticut, and "King Lear" at the Old Vic. As a noted director, he helmed such plays as "King Lear" for the Marin Shakespeare Festival in San Francisco; "A Doll's House" and "Look Back in Anger" in Cleveland, and "The Winslow Boy" in New York. In later years Seale focused again on performing.

Had a 34 year break between recorded acting jobs between 1949 and 1983.

His noted direction of "King John" at the Stratford, Ontario, Shakespeare Festival in 1960 prompted critic Brooks Atkinson of The New York Times to begin his review by writing: "If you decide to put on one of Shakespeare's dull plays, send for Douglas Seale on the double."

He was awarded the 1970 Joseph Jefferson Award for Best Director of a Play for Sir George Bernard Shaw's "Heartbreak House" at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois.

He made his Broadway acting debut at age 60 with "Emperor Henry IV" in 1973, followed by "Frankenstein," "The Dresser," and "The Madwoman of Chaillot. " Among his other roles included Oliver Seaton in "A Family and a Fortune" and Reverend Shannon in "The Night of the Iguana.

He is (arguably) best remembered for his 1983 Broadway performance as Selsdon Mowbray, the inebriated thespian who consistently misses his cues in the deft stage-within-a-stage comedy "Noises Off. " His hilarious performance earned him a Tony Award nomination for "featured actor" in a play.

An occasional on-camera performer blessed with booming, mellifluous tones, Seale was had a featured role in the film Amadeus (1984) and provided the voice of the Sultan in Disney's animated feature Aladdin (1992).

He played Santa Claus in both Amazing Stories (1985) and Ernest Saves Christmas (1988).

In addition, he offered "old man" appearances in such popular film fluff as Ernest Saves Christmas (1988) (as Santa Claus), Ghostbusters 2 (1989), Almost an Angel (1990), Mr.

He and wife Louise Troy appeared together in a brief montage scene in Ghostbusters 2 (1989).

Destiny (1990), For Love or Money (1993), and, his last, Palookaville (1995). Over the years he occasionally played spry gents on such TV shows as "Cheers" and "The Golden Girls.

Denholm Elliott played the role in the 1992 film.

" One of his final stage roles was as aging vaudevillian Billy Rice in the 1996 revival of John Osborne's play "The Entertainer.