Ronald Fraser

Known for ActingBorn 1930-04-11Died 1997-03-13Ashton-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.Read more

Movies & web series

Pygmalion

Black Ice

The Wood Demon

A Bit of a Lift

Between the Wars

The Misfit

Sword of Honour

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders

Heavy Weather

Doctor Who: The Happiness Patrol

Spooner's Patch

The Sweeney

Daylight Robbery

Festival

The Punch and Judy Man

Doctor Who

Swallows and Amazons

Pennies from Heaven

Tangiers

The Comic Strip Presents...

The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes

Lovejoy

The Famous Five

Half Hour Story

Danger Man

Madson

The Blackheath Poisonings

Virtual Murder

Minder

The Flight of the Phoenix

Life Without George

In the Secret State

Theatre 625

Melissa

ITV Playhouse

The Willows in Winter

Let Him Have It

The Wild Geese

A Midsummer Night's Dream

The Best of Enemies

The Long and the Short and the Tall

Follow Me...

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

The Sundowners

The Hellions

Taggart

There Was a Crooked Man

Fortunes of War