Anthony Valentine

Anthony Valentine
Born	17 August 1939 Blackburn, Lancashire, England, U.K.
Died	2 December 2015 (aged 76)
Occupation	Actor
Spouse(s)	Susan Skipper (m. 1982; his death 2015)

Anthony Valentine (17 August 1939 – 2 December 2015) was an English actor known for his television roles: the ruthless Toby Meres in Callan, the sinister Major Mohn in Colditz, George Webster the extremely smooth crook in both Series one (7 Episodes) and series 2 (7 Episodes) in the UK TV Series [The Knock]] as well as the title character in Raffles.

Early life and education

Valentine was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, but moved to Chiswick, West London, with his family when he was six years old and he attended Acton County Grammar School.

Career

Valentine worked as a child actor for the BBC, and appeared at the age of 10 in the film No Way Back (1949), and aged 12 in The Girl on the Pier (1953). He played Harry Wharton in the 1950s BBC children's adaptation of Billy Bunter (1955–57), having initially played another role in earlier episodes.

He appeared in a television production of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman, with Laurence Olivier as Borkman and Irene Worth as his wife, as part of ITV's Play of the Week series. He was best known for his television roles as ruthless Toby Meres in the series Callan (1967–72), sinister Luftwaffe Officer, Major Horst Mohn in the BBC drama Colditz (1974), George Webster in 1994 to 1996 in the UK Television series The Knock and the eponymous Raffles (1975–1977).

Other television appearances included A for Andromeda (1961), Z-Cars (1972), The Avengers (1967, 1968), Softly, Softly (1969), Department S (1970), Budgie (1971), Codename (1970), Space: 1999 (1975), Raffles (1976), Minder (1979, 1980) playing Maurice, a professional gambler, Tales of the Unexpected (1980, 1982), Airline (1982) (in the first episode as Squadron Leader Dickie Marlowe of the RAF), Bergerac (1983), Robin of Sherwood (1984, 1985), Boon (1989), Lovejoy (1986, 1991), The House of Eliott (1991), The Bill (1998), The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (in The Illustrious Client, 1991), New Tricks and Waking the Dead (2002). He also narrated the three Wildlife Explorer documentary films and played a South London bookmaker in the film Performance (1970). He was also the voice of "Dr. X" on Queensrÿche's seminal 1988 album, Operation: Mindcrime.

Further television work included an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot (2006), episodes of The Commander (2005, 2006, 2008), in which he played Commissioner Edward Sumpter, and an episode of Heartbeat (2006). Other television roles are as Nuremberg Prison Commandant Colonel Burton C. Andrus in the 2006 BBC docudrama Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial, and Jimmy "The Gent" Vincent in ITV's The Last Detective (2007). In September 2009 he joined the cast of the British soap Coronation Street as George Wilson.

In theatre he appeared in the West End plays No Sex Please We're British, Sleuth, Half a Sixpence and 'Art', and in the premiere performance of Arnold Wesker's Chicken Soup with Barley, playing the part of Ronnie. His most recent appearance was in Separate Tables at The Mill at Sonning; he wrote and directed The Waiting Game for the same theatre.

On 12 November 2005 Valentine became a patron of the Thwaites Empire Theatre in his birthplace, Blackburn. He died on 2 December 2015 at the age of 76, after suffering from Parkinson's disease for several years.

Selected filmography

• No Way Back (1949)
• The Girl on the Pier (1953)
• The Brain Machine (1955)
• Fun at St. Fanny's (1956)
• The Damned (1963)
• Performance (1970)
• Tower of Evil (1972)
• To the Devil a Daughter (1976)
• Escape to Athena (1979)
• The Monster Club (1980)
• The Plague Dogs (1982)
• The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988)
• Jefferson in Paris (1995)
• The House of Angelo (1997)
• Two Men Went to War (2002)

Television

• Justice (1971-1974)
• Colditz (1974)
• Raffles (1975–1977)
• Minder (1979)
• Masada (1981)
• Airline (1982)
• Robin of Sherwood (1984-1986)
• Lovejoy (1985)
• The Knock (1996–1998)
• Coronation Street (2009–2010)

External links

• Anthony Valentine at the Internet Movie Database
• Anthony Valentine profile, Aveleyman.com; accessed 1 January 2016.