Michael Balfour

Known for ActingBorn 1918-02-11Died 1997-10-24Dover, Kent, England, UK

Michael Creighton Balfour (11 February 1918 – 24 October 1997) was an English actor, working mainly in British films and TV, following his TV debut in the BBC's The Marvellous History of St Bernard, in 1938. He was a recognisable face, often in small character parts and supporting roles, in nearly two hundred films and TV shows, from the 1940s to the 1990s, often playing comical heavies or otherwise shady characters notable for their "loud" clothes, sometimes convincingly cast as an American. He worked for a roll call of film directors, including Tony Richardson, Pete Walker, Billy Wilder, Lewis Gilbert, Roman Polanski, Leslie Norman, Tim Burton, John Frankenheimer, François Truffaut, John Gilling, Stanley Donen, Ken Annakin, Cavalcanti, Lance Comfort, Terence Young, Gerald Thomas, Pasolini, John Paddy Carstairs, Terence Fisher, Val Guest, Frank Launder, John Huston, Basil Dearden and Howard Hawks. Balfour had parts in many popular TV shows of the era including Educated Evans, Mess Mates, Danger Man, The Avengers, Hancock's Half Hour, Dixon of Dock Green, Rogue's Gallery, Z-Cars, The Onedin Line, and the detective drama The Vise, playing Saber's assistant Barney O'Keefe. Balfour was also known as the passenger in a Jaguar XK120 car driven by actor Bonar Colleano when it crashed, killing Colleano. Balfour's injuries required him to have 98 stitches, but he was released from hospital in time to attend Colleano's funeral. As his screen career began to slow down in the late 1970s, Michael Balfour went on tour with European circuses, as a clown. He founded Circus Hazzard, and created his own clown character. His son later became a circus manager. As well as performing, Balfour was a dedicated painter and sculptor, and in later years turned increasingly to sculpture and the arts, even running his own gallery for a while. For his subjects, he frequently drew on his own family career as a circus clownRead more

Movies & web series

The Copter Kids

The Secret of the Forest

Rogues' Gallery

Hoverbug

Reluctant Bandit

Light Fingers

Three's Company

William Comes to Town

Johnny on the Run

Cold Comfort Farm

Top Secret

The Prisoner

The Avengers

The Persuaders!

Strangler's Web

Just William's Luck

The Larkins

Don't Ever Leave Me

Woman Hater

Batman

Danger Man

A Stitch in Time

Hancock's Half Hour

All Coppers Are...

Interpol Calling

Albert R.N.

Melody Club

Resting Rough

The Sea Shall Not Have Them

Macbeth

Fahrenheit 451

Love in Pawn

ITV Saturday Night Theatre

Candleshoe

Five Have a Mystery to Solve

The Big Money

Devil's Point

Black 13

Hot Ice

A Case For P.C. 49

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Sink the Bismarck!

I Was a Male War Bride

Dempsey and Makepeace

Prelude to Fame

Sleeping Car to Trieste

Obsession

Design for Loving