George Innes

Deep-voiced London-born stage and screen actor George Peter Innes was trained as a Shakespearean thesp at Toynbee Hall and at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He made his first theatrical appearances at the National Theatre under the direction of Laurence Olivier and at the Bristol Hippodrome in 1959. Innes appeared in Arnold Wesker's play Chips with Everything which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1962 and went to Broadway the following year. He was also understudy to Frank Finlay as Iago in Othello at the National and played Archbishop Cranmer in A Man for all Seasons at the Nottingham Playhouse. The son of a boxer, Innes has often portrayed tough, pugnacious characters. On screen from 1963, he is perhaps best remembered as Charlie Croker's right-hand man,'jobber' Bill Bailey in the original version of The Italian Job (1969). He also appeared with Michael Caine in The Last Valley (1971) and alongside Albert Finney in Charlie Bubbles (1968) and Gumshoe (1971). A natural go-to for period drama and literary adaptations, Innes has essayed Romans in I, Claudius (1976), Masada (1981) and Antony & Cleopatra (1981). He portrayed Cedric's loyal servant Wamba in Ivanhoe (1982), the dogsbody by day and 'resurrectionist' by night Jeremy Cruncher in A Tale of Two Cities (1980), the foolish but well-intentioned clerk Newman Noggs in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001) and a veteran sailor on the frigate HMS Surprise in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). For the small screen, Innes has acted in numerous iconic shows in Britain and the U.S. , ranging from The Avengers (1961), Open All Hours (1976) and Minder (1979) to Hill Street Blues (1981), Magnum, P.I. (1980) and M*A*S*H (1972) (one of his best roles, as a pompous visiting English doctor who somehow manages to 'out-snob' even the conceited Major Winchester).