The massive brooding face and nose of British actor Percy Herbert is
familiar to movie goers and TV audiences alike. A seemingly unlikely
stage discovery by no one less than the great Dame Sybil Thorndike of
British theater, Herbert moved into movie roles by the early 1950s.
Initially fitting in as a featured cockney character, he nevertheless
moved on to a wide variety of roles, especially as British and American
soldier characters, some notable early ones being in
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) and
The Guns of Navarone (1961). An interesting coincidence was that his character name was
Grogan in both movies - though he was promoted from a private in the
first movie to a sergeant in the second.
He always seemed at home, lending a believable accent and memorable
presence to such as: the menacing baron who joins in the killing of
Archbishop Thomas Becket,
Richard Burton, in
Becket (1964), the hapless Confederate
soldier-with a broad southern accent of
Mysterious Island (1961), the sensible
Scots-American deputy Mac Gregor in TV's short-lived Cimarron Strip
(1968) with
Stuart Whitman. In the course of over 90 film appearances, Herbert
fitted in and lent to genres from fantasy and horror to history and
drama with a sort of sturdy and matter-of-fact competence which makes
him a most memorable big and small screen presence.
The Love Child(1987)as Maurice
Look and Read(1967)as Bert Thurston
Rules of Justice(1981)as George Lattimore
The Sea Wolves(1980)as Dennison
Worzel Gummidge(1979)as Mr. Oakshott
The Bridge on the River Kwai(1957)
Compression(1995)as Self
Heroes of Comedy(1992)as Self
What's a Carry On?(1998)as Charlie, the Bartender
Laugh with the Carry Ons(1993)
Best of British(1987)as Self
