Harold Franklin England (October 2, 1932 – November 6, 2003) was an American actor.

Personal life

He was born on October 23, 1932 to W. F. England and Della Irene England in

Kings Mountain, North Carolina Kings Mountain is a small suburb, suburban city within the Charlotte metropolitan area in Cleveland County, North Carolina, Cleveland and Gaston County, North Carolina, Gaston counties, North Carolina, United States. Most of the city is in Clev ...

. He attended Kings Mountain High School and graduated with honors. After graduating from high school, he enrolled at Mars Hill Junior College to study for the ministry, but left a year later to study pre-law at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

. After a year of pre-law, he switched to dramatics and joined the campus theater group Carolina Playmakers. He graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in dramatic arts. He died on November 6, 2003, of heart failure at

Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center is a Catholic hospital in Burbank, California. The hospital has 446 beds, and is part of Providence Health & Services. Its address is 501 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California 91505. On the opposit ...

. Fred W. Bennett, a producer, was his life partner for forty years.

Career

After graduating from university, England went to New York and starred in a number of

off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

productions, including ''Candide'' and ''

The Seagull ''The Seagull'' () is a play by Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov, written in 1895 in literature, 1895 and first produced in 1896 in literature#Drama, 1896. ''The Seagull'' is generally considered to be the first of his four major plays. It dramati ...

''. He understudied

Robert Morse Robert Alan Morse (May 18, 1931 – April 20, 2022) was an American actor. Known for his gap-toothed boyishness, he started his career as a star on Broadway acting in musicals and plays before expanding into film and television. He earned numero ...

for two years in the Broadway production '' How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying'', and then starred in several Broadway productions including ''Love Me Little'', '' Say Darling'', and '' The Beggars Opera''. He was a life member of the

Actors Studio The Actors Studio is a membership organization for professional actors, theatre directors and playwrights located on West 44th Street in Hell's Kitchen in New York City. The studio is best known for its work refining and teaching method actin ...

. England also had over 100 guest starring roles in television, and appeared in over 200 TV commercials. He once had a lawsuit brought against him for $25,000 by

Kentucky Fried Chicken KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's s ...

, which he had completed a commercial for, for breach of contract, because he had also completed a commercial for their rival

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

; it was later settled out of court. On November 5, 1970, he played the character warlock, Waldo, in the ''

Bewitched ''Bewitched'' is an American fantasy sitcom television series that originally aired for eight seasons on ABC from September 17, 1964, to March 25, 1972. It is about a witch who marries an ordinary mortal man and vows to lead the life of a typi ...

'' episode, "Samantha's Bad Day in Salem."

Filmography

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:England, Hal 1932 births 2003 deaths People from Kings Mountain, North Carolina 20th-century American male actors