Richard Massingham (31 January 1898 in

Sleaford Sleaford is a market town and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the North Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. On the edge of the The Fens, Fenlands, it is north-east of Grantham, west of Boston, Lincolnshire, Boston, and sou ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (), abbreviated ''Lincs'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East Midlands and Yorkshire and the Humber regions of England. It is bordered by the East Riding of Yorkshire across the Humber estuary to th ...

– 1 April 1953 in

Biddenden Biddenden is a large, mostly agricultural and wooded village and civil parish in the borough of Ashford in Kent, England. The village lies on the Weald of Kent, north of Tenterden. It was a centre for the Wealden iron industry and clothmaking. ...

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

) was a British medical doctor who is principally known for starring in

public information film Public information films (PIFs) are a series of government-commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the United Kingdom. The name is sometimes also applied, ''faute de mieux'', to similar films from other countries, ...

s made in the 1940s and early 1950s.

Life

After working in medicine and making amateur films, Massingham set up Public Relationship Films Ltd in 1938 when he noticed that there was no specialist agency making short educational films for the public. In the films he typically played a bumbling character who was slightly more stupid than average, and often explained the message of the film through demonstrating the risks if it was ignored. Films' topics included postal deliveries, how to cross the road, how to prevent the spread of diseases, how to swim and how to drive without causing the road to be unsafe for other users.

Family

Massingham's father was H.W. Massingham (1860–1924) the journalist, and his siblings included writer Harold John Massingham (1888–1952), writer Hugh Massingham (1905–1971) and playwright and actress Dorothy Massingham (1889–1933). He was the son of Emma Jane née Snowdon, the daughter of Henry Snowdon of St. Leonard's Priory,

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of the county of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. It lies by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. The population of the Norwich ...

Selected Films

* ''Dr Massingham says... Tell Me If It Hurts'' (1934) * ''And So To Work'' (1936) * ''The Daily Round'' (1937) * ''Surviving the War: The Five Inch Bather'' (1942) * ''In Which We Live: Being the Life Story of a Suit Told by Itself'' (1943) * ''Post Early for Christmas'' (1943) * ''Elopement in France'' (1944) * ''An Englishman's home... Down at the Local'' (1945) *
Coughs and Sneezes
' (1945) * ''Post-war Blues: The Daily Grind: Pool of Contentment'' (1946) * ''Pedal Cyclists'' (1947) * ''Watch Your Meters'' (1947) * ''Jet-propelled Germs'' (1948) * ''Pedestrian Crossing'' (1948) * ''Post-war Blues: What a Life!'' (1948) * ''30 Miles an Hour'' (1949) * ''Another Case of Poisoning'' (1949) *
Handkerchief Drill
' (1949) * ''Warning to Travellers'' (1949) * ''The Cure'' (1950) * ''Help Yourself'' (1950) * ''Moving House'' (1950) * ''Introducing the New Worker'' (1951) His short films are collected in the BFI DVD "How to be Eccentric: The Essential Richard Massingham" (2015).

In popular culture

The animator Cyriak Harris created his animation
Breakfast
' using samples of footage from Massingham's ''Pedestrian Crossing'' film: mainly, a shot of a seated Massingham eating breakfast in the middle of a pedestrian crossing, just as a passing car slams into his card table, spilling the contents everywhere.

References

External links

* * 1898 births 1953 deaths English male film actors 20th-century English medical doctors People from Sleaford, Lincolnshire 20th-century English male actors Male actors from Lincolnshire Actors from North Kesteven District {{england-film-actor-stub