Neal Arden (born Arthur Neal Aiston; 27 December 1909 – 4 June 2014) was an English-born actor and writer who appeared in films, television shows, theatre productions and radio programs. He was born in

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea. The area faces Wandswo ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. In 1928, Arden moved to

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally k ...

and served in the

British South Africa Police The British South Africa Police (BSAP) was, for most of its existence, the police force of Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe in 1980). It was formed as a paramilitary force of mounted infantrymen in 1889 by Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company, from ...

(BSAP). Two years later, he returned to Great Britain to pursue an acting career. His screen debut came in the 1934 film version of '' Princess Charming''. Other films include ''

"Pimpernel" Smith ''"Pimpernel" Smith'' (released in the USA as ''Mister V'') is a 1941 British anti-Nazi thriller, produced and directed by its star Leslie Howard, which updates his role in ''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' (1934) from Revolutionary France to pre-Seco ...

'', '' John Wesley'' and '' The Shakedown''. He also worked in television, appearing in series like ''

Ivanhoe ''Ivanhoe: A Romance'' () by Walter Scott is a historical novel published in three volumes, in 1819, as one of the Waverley novels. Set in England in the Middle Ages, this novel marked a shift away from Scott’s prior practice of setting st ...

'' and ''

Z-Cars ''Z-Cars'' or ''Z Cars'' (pronounced "zed cars") is a British television police procedural series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, near Liverpool. Produced by the BBC, it debut ...

''. Arden's most notable role was on the BBC radio show '' Housewives' Choice'', as a host for 20 years from 1946. His last acting credit was in 1977.

Later life

Arden also wrote plays and songs. In 2005, he published his autobiography called ''A Man of Many Parts''. In 2003 he retired to

East Anglia East Anglia is an area in the East of England, often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia, in ...

with his wife Julia. Arden died on 4 June 2014.

Filmography

References

External links

* 1909 births 2014 deaths Male actors from London English centenarians British South Africa Police officers English male film actors English male stage actors English male television actors English male radio actors Men centenarians People from Fulham 20th-century English male actors Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art British expatriates in Southern Rhodesia {{UK-actor-stub