Ronald Fraser

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 longstanding reputation as a heavy drinker His credits include The Long and the Short and the Tall 1961 The Best of Enemies 1961Flight of the Phoenix 1965 The Avengers 1965 The Killing of Sister George 1968 The Misfit 19701971 Pygmalion 1973 Swallows and Amazons 1974 Come Play With Me 1977 The Wild Geese 1978 Spooners Patch 1979 Trail of the Pink Panther 1982 Tangiers 1982 Absolute Beginners 1986 Minder 19851989 Scandal 1989 Let Him Have It 1991 Taggart 1992 and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles 1993 Ronald Fraser was born in AshtonunderLyne Lancashire the son of an interior decorator and builder from Scotland He attended AshtonunderLyne 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 Glasgows 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 Melvilles 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 OCasey Entertaining Mr Sloane Joseph Papps 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 Regents 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 AllenbyJohnson in the 1970s television series The Misfit 19701971 In 1996 Fraser voiced the chief judge in The Willows in Winter