Gerald Sim

The son of a Barings Bank employee, Gerald was born in Liverpool on June 4, 1925. His elder sister was the actress Sheila Sim.

After schooling in Kent he was trained at RADA, apparently having become enamored with acting after listening to a 1943 radio broadcast of John Gielgud (entitled "The Great Ship").

Beginning with a small role in Fame Is the Spur (1947), Sim was to eventually become one of Britain's most reliable, yet ever-so-discreet screen character players, his profile firmly established in several films directed by Bryan Forbes, including Whistle Down the Wind (1961), King Rat (1965) and The Wrong Box (1966). He was most often featured as bumptious upper crusts (suitably convincing because of his clear voice and precise diction), obtuse vicars, police inspectors, barristers and very British stiff-upper-lip military types.

Then followed extensive repertory experience, both in England, and in Durban, South Africa (1954, with the McNeale Company).

After repeated guest roles in such prime time shows as Dixon of Dock Green (1955) and The Avengers (1961), Sim became firmly entrenched in the medium and never looked back.

He appeared in two films with his niece Charlotte Attenborough: Whistle Down the Wind (1961) and Oh! What a Lovely War (1969).

He appeared in seven films directed by his brother-in-law Richard Attenborough: Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Young Winston (1972), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Gandhi (1982), Cry Freedom (1987), Chaplin (1992) and Shadowlands (1993).

His character Colonel Sims in A Bridge Too Far (1977) was named after him.

A stalwart, subtle presence of British stage and screen, Gerald Sim's work was both prolific and varied. Nonetheless, he will be best remembered by the majority of viewers as the wily rector of To the Manor Born (1979).

He was considered for the role of the Pathologist in Lifeforce (1985).