Ballard Blascheck (6 August 1904 – 16 January 1988), known professionally as Ballard Berkeley, was an English actor of stage and screen. He is best remembered for playing Major Gowen in the British television

sitcom A sitcom, a Portmanteau, portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troup ...

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''.

Life and career

The son of Joseph and Beatrice Blascheck, he was born in

Royal Tunbridge Wells Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. He married Dorothy Long in 1929. During the 1930s he performed regularly in the so-called "

quota quickies Quota may refer to: Economics * Import quota, a trade restriction on the quantity of goods imported into a country * Market Sharing Quota, an economic system used in Canadian agriculture * Milk quota, a quota on milk production in Europe * In ...

". One of his earliest roles was as the heroic lead in the 1937 film '' The Last Adventurers''. He served as a special constable with the Metropolitan Police during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, witnessing

the Blitz The Blitz was a German bombing campaign against the United Kingdom in 1940 and 1941, during the Second World War. The term was first used by the British press and originated from the term , the German word meaning 'lightning war'. The Germa ...

at first hand, including the bombing of the Café de Paris nightclub. For his service he received the Defence Medal and the Special Constabulary Long Service Medal. He appeared in the film ''

In Which We Serve ''In Which We Serve'' is a 1942 British patriotic war film directed by Noël Coward and David Lean. It was made during the Second World War with the assistance of the Ministry of Information. The screenplay by Coward was inspired by the explo ...

'' (1942) and in the Hitchcock film ''

Stage Fright Stage fright or performance anxiety is the anxiety, fear, or persistent phobia which may be aroused in an individual by the requirement to perform in front of an audience, real or imagined, whether actually or potentially (for example, when per ...

'' (1950). He featured as Detective Inspector Berkeley in two episodes of

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's drama series, '' Scotland Yard'': "Person Unknown" (1956), and "Bullet from the Past" (1957). Berkeley played the role of bumbling Major Gowen in the BBC TV comedy ''

'', and a similar role in the legal drama '' The Main Chance'' (1969). He portrayed another retired military man (Colonel Freddie Danby) in BBC Radio 4's ''

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'', taking over the role from

Norman Shelley Norman Shelley (16 February 1903 – 21 August 1980) was a British actor, best known for his work in radio, in particular for the BBC's ''Children's Hour''. He also had a recurring role as Colonel Danby in the long-running radio soap opera ''T ...

. He played a starring role in ''

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'' as main character Hester's father Guy, was Hartley in ''

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'' and played Colonel Culpepper in ''

Terry and June ''Terry and June'' is a BBC television sitcom, which was broadcast on BBC1 from 1979 to 1987. The show was largely a reworking of '' Happy Ever After'', and starred Terry Scott and June Whitfield as a middle-aged, middle-class suburban couple ...

''. He had small roles in an episode of ''

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'' (1977), an adaptation of ''

Little Lord Fauntleroy ''Little Lord Fauntleroy'' is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. It was published as a serial in ''St. Nicholas Magazine'' from November 1885 to October 1886, then as a book by Scribner's (the publisher of ''St. Nicholas'') in 1886. The il ...

'' (1980), and appeared once in '' Bless This House'' as a

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in the episode "Strangers in the Night" (1972), and in '' The New Avengers'' as Colonel Foster in the episode "Dirtier by the Dozen". He also had small roles in the BBC sitcoms ''

Hi-de-Hi! ''Hi-de-Hi!'' is a BBC television sitcom shown on BBC1 from 1 January 1980 to 30 January 1988. Set in 1959 and 1960 in Maplins, a fictional holiday camp, the show was written by Jimmy Perry and David Croft, who also wrote '' Dad's Army'' a ...

'' ("Empty Saddles," 1983) and ''

Are You Being Served? ''Are You Being Served?'' is a British sitcom created and written by executive producer David Croft (Croft also directed some episodes) and Jeremy Lloyd, with contributions from Michael Knowles and John Chapman, for the BBC. Set in London, ...

'' ("Memories Are Made of This," 1983). He made a brief appearance in the 1985 American film '' National Lampoon's European Vacation'' which starred

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He became a key cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'', where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment became a staple of the ...

. In this film, Berkeley played a British man who is involved in a minor road accident with the Griswalds. Berkeley later performed the role of Winston—a similar character to "The Major"—in the radio comedy ''Wrinkles'' by Doug Naylor and

Rob Grant Robert Grant is an English comedy writer, television producer and co-creator of ''Red Dwarf''. Since ''Red Dwarf'', Grant has written two television series, ''The Strangerers'' and '' Dark Ages'', and four solo novels, his most recent being ''Fa ...

. He played Badedas the Blue, a wizard in the radio comedy series '' Hordes of the Things''. His last role was as the Head of the Army in the animated film version of

Roald Dahl Roald Dahl (13 September 1916 – 23 November 1990) was a British novelist, short-story writer, poet, screenwriter, and wartime fighter ace of Norwegian descent. His books have sold more than 250 million copies worldwide. Dahl has b ...

's ''

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''. Berkeley died in London on 16 January 1988, and the film was released on 25 December 1989.

Selected filmography

Film

Television

References

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berkeley, Ballard 1904 births 1988 deaths English male film actors English male radio actors English male stage actors English male television actors People from Royal Tunbridge Wells Male actors from Kent 20th-century English male actors Metropolitan Special Constabulary officers British male comedy actors British special constables