Colin Gordon

Colin Gordon (27 April 1911 – 4 October 1972) was a British actor born in Ceylon. He was educated at Marlborough College and Christ Church, Oxford. He made his first West End appearance in 1934 as the hind legs of a horse in a production of Toad of Toad Hall. From 1936 to 1939 he was a director with the Fred Melville Repertory Company in Brixton. He served in the army during the Second World War for six years. His performance in 1948 as Rupert Billings in The Happiest Days of Your Life won the Clarence Derwent award.

Ceylon-born Colin Gordon began acting on the West End stage as the hind legs of a horse in 'Toad of Toad Hall' in 1934. After wartime service, he returned to the stage, appearing in such plays as 'The White Carnation' and 'The Little Hut' (both 1953), 'Misery Me!' (1955) and 'The Touch of Fear' (1956). His award-winning stage role of teacher Rupert Billings in 'The Happiest Days of Your Life' was recreated for the film version by another bespectacled actor, Richard Wattis. From 1957, Colin worked as actor-director with the Guildford Repertory Theatre. Though he is usually described as a 'light comedy actor', Colin made his mark in the acting profession as much by playing countless supercilious or sneering bureaucrats, lawyers or haughty military types. His stock-in-trade became his ever-present horn-rimmed glasses, combined with a cynical or asinine manner and a precisely modulated voice. His best performances might include pompous BBC announcer Reginald Willoughby-Cruft in The Green Man (1956) and his bank manager, locked up in the Strongroom (1962) of his own bank during a robbery. He is likely best remembered for being a particularly sinister Number 2 to Patrick McGoohan in TV's The Prisoner (1967) - twice.