Bryan Pringle (19 January 1935 – 15 May 2002) was an English character actor who appeared for several decades in television, film and theatre productions.

Life and career

Born in

Glascote Glascote is an area of Tamworth, in the Tamworth district, in Staffordshire, England. The area centres on the Glascote Road, and is mainly residential with a few convenience stores and pubs. History Glascote is derived from the Old English wor ...

, Tamworth,

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, he was brought up in the Lancashire town of Bolton. After boarding at

St Bees School , motto_translation = Enter so that you may make progress , established = (reformed 2015–2018) , type = Public schoolIndependent day and boarding , religious_affiliation = Church of England , president = , head_label ...

, Cumberland, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, winning the 1954 Bancroft Gold Medal and leaving in 1955. Three years later he married character actress Anne Jameson; together they had two children. She died in 1999.

Theatre work

Pringle started as a member of the Old Vic company between 1955 and 1957, appearing with Coral Browne, John Neville, Claire Bloom and others in several Shakespeare plays and touring with four of them - ''

Romeo and Juliet ''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...

'', ''

Richard II Richard II (6 January 1367 – ), also known as Richard of Bordeaux, was King of England from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. He was the son of Edward the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, and Joan, Countess of Kent. Richard's father died ...

'', '' Troilus and Cressida'' and ''

Macbeth ''Macbeth'' (, full title ''The Tragedie of Macbeth'') is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. It is thought to have been first performed in 1606. It dramatises the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those w ...

'' - in the USA. He then moved to

Nottingham Playhouse Nottingham Playhouse is a theatre in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England. It was first established as a repertory theatre in 1948 when it operated from a former cinema in Goldsmith Street. Directors during this period included Val May and Fr ...

, where he appeared in the Willis Hall drama ''Boys It's All Hell'' and was the only cast member to travel with the play to London. There, Lindsay Anderson remounted it as '' The Long and the Short and the Tall'' at the Royal Court Theatre in January 1959; also starring

Peter O'Toole Peter Seamus O'Toole (; 2 August 1932 – 14 December 2013) was a British stage and film actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began working in the theatre, gaining recognition as a Shakespearean actor at the Bristol Old Vic ...

and Robert Shaw, the play transferred to the New Theatre in April. Later that year, in October, Pringle appeared opposite Robert Shaw again in Guy Hamilton's production of the Beverley Cross play ''One More River'' at the Duke of York's Theatre. In 1961 he was at Theatre Workshop, working with Joan Littlewood on the

Henry Livings Henry Livings (20 September 1929 – 20 February 1998) was an English playwright and screenwriter, who worked extensively in British television and theatre from the 1960s to the 1990s. Early life and career Livings was born in Prestwich, ...

play ''Big Soft Nellie''. (Ten years later he was top-billed in Michael Apted's TV version of the same play for

Granada Television ITV Granada, formerly known as Granada Television, is the ITV franchisee for the North West of England and Isle of Man. From 1956 to 1968 it broadcast to both the north west and Yorkshire but only on weekdays as ABC Weekend Television was it ...

.) Then, having joined the

Royal Shakespeare Company The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, St ...

, he scored two personal successes in the summer of 1964, first as Stanley in

Harold Pinter Harold Pinter (; 10 October 1930 – 24 December 2008) was a British playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. A Nobel Prize winner, Pinter was one of the most influential modern British dramatists with a writing career that spanne ...

's '' The Birthday Party'' (directed by the playwright), then as the dustbin-bound Nagg in the

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

play ''

Endgame Endgame, Endgames, End Game, End Games, or similar variations may refer to: Film * ''The End of the Game'' (1919 film) * ''The End of the Game'' (1975 film), short documentary U.S. film * ''Endgame'' (1983 film), 1983 Italian post-apocalyptic f ...

''. Among later theatre credits, he starred with Jane Asher and Brian Murphy in the Romain Weingarten play ''

Summer Summer is the hottest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, the earliest sunrise and latest sunset occurs, daylight hours are longest and dark hours are shortest, wit ...

'' at the Fortune Theatre in 1968, appeared as Malvolio in '' Twelfth Night'' at the Bankside Globe in 1973 (reprising the role at the

Ludlow Festival Ludlow () is a market town in Shropshire, England. The town is significant in the history of the Welsh Marches and in relation to Wales. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road which bypasses the town. The to ...

15 years later), was Michael Crawford's father in ''Billy'' at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1974, returned to Nottingham Playhouse in 1977 to play Dogberry in '' Much Ado About Nothing'' and appeared opposite

David Suchet Sir David Courtney Suchet''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916–2007'' ( ; born 2 May 1946) is an English actor known for his work on British stage and television. He portrayed Edward Teller in the television serial '' Oppenh ...

in the John Hopkins play ''This Story of Yours'' (Hampstead Theatre, 1987). In his final decade he appeared in major revivals of '' My Fair Lady'' (as Doolittle; 1992) and

Joe Orton John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his death in 1967, was short but highly influential. During this brie ...

's '' Entertaining Mr Sloane'' (as Kemp; 1999–2001).

Film work

Pringle appeared in many films, beginning with '' Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'' (1960) as Rachel Roberts' cuckolded husband. He also appeared alongside Norman Wisdom in the 1965 film '' The Early Bird'' as the treacherous rival milkman, Austin, the role for which he is perhaps best remembered. He continued to be cast in many notable films, such as '' French Dressing'' and '' The Boyfriend'' (both for director

Ken Russell Henry Kenneth Alfred Russell (3 July 1927 – 27 November 2011) was a British film director, known for his pioneering work in television and film and for his flamboyant and controversial style. His films in the main were liberal adaptation ...

), ''

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

'', '' Drowning by Numbers'' and '' B. Monkey''.

Television work

Pringle also made numerous television appearances, gaining fame as 'Cheese & Egg' in the

sitcom '' The Dustbinmen'' (1969–70). Earlier, he was Charles Pooter in ''

Diary of a Nobody ''The Diary of a Nobody'' is an English comic novel written by the brothers George and Weedon Grossmith, with illustrations by the latter. It originated as an intermittent serial in ''Punch'' magazine in 1888–89 and first appeared in book for ...

'', made by

for

BBC 2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

in 1964; also for the BBC, he played Len Wiles, adoptive father of Terry Wiles, in '' On Giant's Shoulders'' in 1979, Pistol in Shakespeare's '' Henry IV Part II'' and '' Henry V'' the same year, and Sergeant Match in a 1987 version of the

play '' What the Butler Saw''. In 1980 he played Albert Case, leader of a group of villains in ''The Professionals'' episode ''Weekend in the Country''. Other notable appearances were as landlord Arthur Pringle in Series 2 of '' Auf Wiedersehen, Pet'' (1986), as Barker in the '' Inspector Morse'' episode ''Deceived by Flight'' (1989) and as pathologist Felix Norman in '' Prime Suspect'' (1991). He played the part of the farmer Mr. Grimsdale in the second series of " All Creatures Great and Small". Pringle also appeared in 1985 in a well-known TV commercial advertising Heineken beer, playing a cockney elocutionist attempting to teach an upper-class woman ( Sylvestra Le Touzel) how to say "The wa'er in Major'a don' taste like wot id ough' 'a" ("The water in Majorca don't taste like what it ought to"). In the early 1980s he also appeared in a series of International Direct Dialling adverts. In the first advert he had the classic line "Sydney who?" only to be told "Not Sydney who, Sydney Australia", at which point the shock causes him to forcefully spit out a mouthful of tea he has just taken. The theme continued in further adverts.

Death

In later life Pringle lived in Northamptonshire, where he died on 15 May 2002; his body was buried alongside his wife's in the cemetery of St Laurence Church in Brafield on the Green.

Selected filmography

* '' The Challenge'' (1960) - sergeant * '' Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'' (1960) - Jack * ''

H.M.S. Defiant ''H.M.S. Defiant'' (released as ''Damn the Defiant!'' in the United States) is a British naval war CinemaScope and Technicolor film from 1962 starring Alec Guinness and Dirk Bogarde. It tells the story of a mutiny aboard the fictitious ship ...

'' (1962) - Sgt Kneebone * '' Lawrence of Arabia'' (1962) - driver (uncredited) * '' French Dressing'' (1964) - the Mayor * '' The Early Bird'' (1965) - Austin * '' How I Won the War'' (1967) - reporter * '' Berserk!'' (1967) - Constable Bradford * '' Diamonds for Breakfast'' (1968) - police sergeant * ''

Spring and Port Wine ''Spring and Port Wine'' is a stage play by Bill Naughton and a 1970 British kitchen sink drama film based on it. The drama is set in Bolton and concerns the Crompton family, especially Rafe, the father, and his attempts to assert his authority ...

'' (1970) - bowler 3 * '' The Boy Friend'' (1971) - Percy Parkhill / Percy Browne * '' Mister Quilp'' (1975) - Mr Garland * '' Jabberwocky'' (1977) - guard at gate * '' Bullshot'' (1983) - waiter * ''The Young Visiters'' (1984) - Minnit the butler * ''

'' (1985) - Spiro * '' Haunted Honeymoon'' (1986) - Pfister * '' Consuming Passions'' (1988) - gateman * '' Drowning by Numbers'' (1988) - Jake * '' Inspector Morse'' (1989) - Barker (The Porter) * '' Getting It Right'' (1989) - Mr Lamb * ''Crimestrike'' (1990) - Super * '' Three Men and a Little Lady'' (1990) - old Englishman * '' American Friends'' (1991) - Haskell * ''

The Steal The Steal were an English hardcore punk band, from Kingston upon Thames and Brighton. History They formed in late 2005, and were influenced by Minor Threat, 7 Seconds (band), 7 Seconds and Kid Dynamite (band), Kid Dynamite. In 2006 they compl ...

'' (1995) - Cecil, bank doorman * '' Restoration'' (1995) - watchman * '' Snow White: A Tale of Terror'' (1997) - Father Gilbert * '' The Legend of 1900'' (1998) - civil servant * '' B. Monkey'' (1998) - Goodchild * '' Darkness Falls'' (1999) - Mr Hayter * ''Lover's Prayer'' (2001) - Stepan

Television

References

External links

*
Obituary in ''The Independent''

Obituary in ''The Guardian''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pringle, Bryan 1935 births 2002 deaths Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art English male film actors English male stage actors English male television actors People from Bolton People from Tamworth, Staffordshire