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TürkçeGeorge Sewell
Photos with George Sewell
Biography
Hoxton, London, England, UK
British leading actor whose tough, pockmarked features belied a soft voice and cultivated manner. Sewell was born in East London, the son of a printer. After brief service in the RAF during the closing stages of World War II, he held down a wide variety of short-lived jobs, including as carpenter, photographer, drummer and assistant roadie for a rumba band, steward on Cunard liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, and, for six years, as motor coach courier for a holiday travel agency. Read more... career. A successful audition with Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop, led to him being cast in several cockney comedies and he ended up playing Field Marshal Haig in "Oh, What a Lovely War" in 1963. This was possibly the first of many stern authoritarians he would later portray on screen.
Motion pictures saw him in gritty social dramas like This Sporting Life (1963) and tough crime films like Underworld Informers (1963) and Get Carter (1971), often alternating villainy with law enforcement. He also had a small role in the science fiction thriller Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969). This was something of a precursor to the cult series UFO (1969), in which he played the cool-headed second-in-command, Colonel Alec Freeman. More typically, his television characters tended to be hard-nosed, cynical cops, like his DI Brogan in Z Cars (1962) or DCI Alan Craven in Special Branch (1969). A former Littlewood alumnus, the writer Robin Chapman, picked Sewell for another plum role as a London gangster in Spindoe (1967). He was also on hand as Smiley's reliable, 'sharp-eyed' ex-Special Branch minder Mendel in the original miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979).
After 2000, Sewell scaled down his television appearances and spent more time at his holiday home in the south of France. He occasionally came out of semi-retirement, most notably for a well-received production of a play by Tudor Gates, "Who Killed Agatha Christie?", in which he starred as a playwright intent on exacting revenge against a waspish critic. A very capable actor, who never quite managed to become a major star, Sewell died in April 2007 at the age of 82.
Motion pictures saw him in gritty social dramas like This Sporting Life (1963) and tough crime films like Underworld Informers (1963) and Get Carter (1971), often alternating villainy with law enforcement. He also had a small role in the science fiction thriller Journey to the Far Side of the Sun (1969). This was something of a precursor to the cult series UFO (1969), in which he played the cool-headed second-in-command, Colonel Alec Freeman. More typically, his television characters tended to be hard-nosed, cynical cops, like his DI Brogan in Z Cars (1962) or DCI Alan Craven in Special Branch (1969). A former Littlewood alumnus, the writer Robin Chapman, picked Sewell for another plum role as a London gangster in Spindoe (1967). He was also on hand as Smiley's reliable, 'sharp-eyed' ex-Special Branch minder Mendel in the original miniseries Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979).
After 2000, Sewell scaled down his television appearances and spent more time at his holiday home in the south of France. He occasionally came out of semi-retirement, most notably for a well-received production of a play by Tudor Gates, "Who Killed Agatha Christie?", in which he starred as a playwright intent on exacting revenge against a waspish critic. A very capable actor, who never quite managed to become a major star, Sewell died in April 2007 at the age of 82.
Actor
Character:
Jeff
This Sporting Life 1963
3
Character:
Bert
Sparrows Can't Sing 1963
5
Character:
Customer in Pub
Poor Cow 1967
22
Character:
Car Park Assassin
Deadlier Than the Male 1967
1
Character:
Ben
Robbery 1967
1
Character:
Harry
The Vengeance of She 1968
1
Character:
Bob Kellett
The Haunted House of Horror 1969
1
Character:
Daniel Haggerty
Wet Job 1981
2
Character:
Chairman
The Fix 1997
0
Character:
Carter
Let's Stick Together 1998
0
Character:
Barry's Second
Barry Lyndon 1975
15
Character:
Friedrich
Screen One 1985
0
Character:
Frank
Minder 1979
1
Character:
Con McCarty
Get Carter 1971
11
Character:
Ironmaster Rouncewell
Masterpiece Theatre: Bleak House 1985
0
Character:
Wheeler
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em 1973
0
Character:
Laughlin
Tales of the Unexpected 1979
0
Character:
Mendel
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 1979
1
Character:
Nicholls
Thirty-Minute Theatre 1965
0
Character:
Baker
Rising Damp 1974
0
Character:
Harry Brierly
Public Eye 1965
0
Character:
Henry Webster
Man at the Top 1970
0
Character:
Vic Tolman
The Sweeney 1975
0
Character:
Billy
Kaleidoscope 1966
0
Character:
Himself
Starring John Bindon 0
0