1930-04-11 Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England, UK
Ronald Gordon Fraser (11 April 1930 – 13 March 1997) was a British character actor, who appeared in numerous British plays, films and television shows from the 1950s to the 1990s. Fraser was a familiar figure in West End clubs during the 1960s, having had a long-standing reputation as a heavy drinker. His credits include The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961), ‘’The Best of Enemies (1961)’’Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Avengers (1965), The Killing of Sister George (1968), The Misfit (1970–1971), Pygmalion (1973), Swallows and Amazons (1974), Come Play With Me (1977), The Wild Geese (1978), Spooner's Patch (1979), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), Tangiers (1982), Absolute Beginners (1986), Minder (1985–1989), Scandal (1989), Let Him Have It (1991), Taggart (1992), and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1993) Ronald Fraser was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, the son of an interior decorator and builder from Scotland. He attended Ashton-under-Lyne Grammar School. He was further educated in Scotland and did national service as a lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders. Whilst serving in Benghazi, North Africa, he appeared in the Terence Rattigan comic play French Without Tears. He trained as an actor at RADA, graduating in 1953. He appeared at Glasgow's Citizens' Theatre, and joined the Old Vic repertory company in 1954, making his first London appearance in The Good Sailor, a stage adaptation of Herman Melville's novel, Billy Budd. In the West End, he appeared in The Long and the Short and the Tall (1959), The Ginger Man, The Singular Man, Androcles and the Lion (1961), The Showing Up of Blanco Posnet (1961), Purple Dust by Seán O'Casey, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Joseph Papp's production of The Pirates of Penzance and High Society. He also played Falstaff in a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. His only Broadway show was the flop La Grosse Valise by Robert Dhéry, Gérard Calvi and Harold Rome. He appeared in numerous television roles from 1954, and in nearly 50 films from 1957, mostly in comedies. He was notable as Basil "Badger" Allenby-Johnson in the 1970s television series The Misfit (1970–1971). In 1996 Fraser voiced the chief judge in The Willows in Winter.
 |
The Willows in Winter | Chief Judge | 1996-12-26 |
 |
Heavy Weather | Sir Gregory Parsloe | 1995-12-24 |
 |
The Mystery of Edwin Drood | 1993-04-23 | |
 |
The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Phantom Train of Doom | Donald Parks | 1993-06-05 |
 |
The Blackheath Poisonings | Doctor Porter | 1992-12-07 |
 |
Let Him Have It | Niven's Judge | 1991-10-04 |
 |
Obituaries | Timothy Apcar | 1990-08-16 |
 |
Oxford | Geoffrey | 1990-02-22 |
 |
Scandal | Justice Marshall | 1989-03-03 |
 |
Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol | Joseph C | 1988-11-16 |
|
Murder on the Bluebell Line | Dr Watson | 1987-01-01 |
 |
Absolute Beginners | Amberley Drove | 1986-04-04 |
|
Tangiers | Jenkins | 1985-01-01 |
 |
In the Secret State | Barnaby Tucker | 1985-03-10 |
 |
Trail of the Pink Panther | Dr. Longet | 1982-12-03 |
 |
Pygmalion | Colonel Pickering | 1981-12-27 |
 |
The Wild Geese | Sgt. Jock McTaggart | 1978-06-28 |
 |
Come Play with Me | Slasher | 1977-04-28 |
|
The Bass Player and the Blonde | Charlie | 1977-06-14 |
 |
Ghosts | Engstrand | 1977-11-11 |
 |
Hardcore | Marty | 1977-03-17 |
 |
Swallows and Amazons | Uncle Jim | 1974-06-01 |
 |
Fallen Angels | Willy Banbury | 1974-07-18 |
 |
Percy's Progress | Bleeker | 1974-08-01 |
 |
The Wood Demon | Serbryakov | 1974-11-17 |
 |
A Bit of a Lift | Alec | 1973-09-25 |
 |
Pygmalion | 1973-12-16 | |
 |
Rentadick | Major Upton | 1972-12-31 |
 |
Ooh...You Are Awful | Reggie Campbell Peek | 1972-12-01 |
 |
The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins | George (segment "Wrath") | 1971-11-01 |
 |
Too Late the Hero | Private Campbell | 1970-05-20 |
 |
The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer | Tom Hutchinson | 1970-11-12 |
 |
Sinful Davey | MacNab | 1969-02-10 |
 |
Luther | Tetzel | 1968-01-29 |
|
The Fifty-Seventh Saturday | Mr. McCarthy | 1968-07-03 |
 |
Sebastian | Toby | 1968-01-24 |
|
The Brahmin Widow | Major-General Peter Howard | 1968-04-08 |
 |
The Killing of Sister George | Leo Lockhart | 1968-09-01 |
 |
The Whisperers | Charlie Ross | 1967-07-18 |
 |
Fathom | Col. Douglas Campbell, Chief of HADES | 1967-08-25 |
 |
The Flight of the Phoenix | Sergeant Watson | 1965-12-15 |
 |
Daylight Robbery | 1964-12-01 | |
 |
Victim Five | Inspector Dickie Lean | 1964-07-10 |
 |
Crooks in Cloisters | Walter Dodd | 1964-01-01 |
 |
The Beauty Jungle | Walter Carey | 1964-08-25 |
 |
Allez France ! | Sergent Timothy Reagan | 1964-10-10 |
 |
The V.I.P.s | Joslin | 1963-09-01 |
 |
Girl in the Headlines | Sergeant Saunders | 1963-11-15 |
 |
The Punch and Judy Man | Mayor Palmer | 1963-04-08 |
 |
Private Potter | Doctor | 1962-01-01 |
 |
The Pot Carriers | Red Band | 1962-03-10 |
|
The Ginger Man | 1962-01-01 | |
 |
In Search of the Castaways | Guard at Dockyard Gate | 1962-12-01 |
 |
The Long and the Short and the Tall | L / Cpl. Macleish | 1961-02-28 |
 |
The Best of Enemies | Perfect | 1961-10-26 |
 |
The Hellions | Frank | 1961-11-27 |
 |
Don't Bother to Knock | Fred | 1961-05-28 |
 |
The Sundowners | Ocker | 1960-12-08 |
 |
There Was a Crooked Man | Gen. Cummins | 1960-08-31 |
|
Black Ice | 1957-12-12 |
