Idols
Basil Radford
English character actor Basil Radford was the archetypal eccentric Englishman. He teamed up with Naunton Wayne and as the comedy duo Charters and Caldicott – cricket- obsessed gentlemen who let the horrors of everyday living pass them by- scored such a hit in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lady Vanishes that they began their own radio show.
The duo’s career remained interlinked, but Radford also proved himself well able to handle solo ‘serious’ roles by playing the owner of a small engineering firm with a pig-headed work force in what is one of his best performances Chance of a Lifetime.
Radford was born in 1897 and died in 1952.
Key films
1936: Broken Blossoms
1937: Young and Innocent
1938: The Lady Vanishes
1940: Night Train to Munich
1943: Millions Like Us
1945: The Way to the Stars (USA: Johnny in the Clouds)
1945: Dead of Night
1946: The Captive Heart
1949: Passport to Pimlico; Whisky Galore! (USA: Tight Little Island)
1950: Chance of a Lifetime
1951: The Galloping Major