Torin Thatcher
Known For
Acting
Born
1905-01-15 in Bombay, British India, India
Died
1981-03-04
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Torin Thatcher (15 January 1905 - 4 March 1981) was an English actor born in Bombay, British India, India), to English parents. He was an imposing, powerfully built figure noted for his flashy portrayals of screen villains. He was educated in England at Bedford School and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He worked as a schoolmaster before first appearing on the London stage in 1927 and then entering British films in 1934. He appeared in the 1937 Old Vic stage production of Hamlet, in which Laurence Olivier made his first appearance in the title role, opposite Vivien Leigh as Ophelia. During the Second World War, he served with the Royal Artillery and was demobilized with the rank of lieutenant colonel. Thatcher appeared in classic British films of the late 1930s and 1940s, including Major Barbara (1941) and Great Expectations (1946), in which he played Bentley Drummle. He moved to Hollywood in the 1950s. He was constantly in demand, invariably lending his looming figure and baleful countenance to sinister or stern roles in popular costume thrillers such as The Crimson Pirate (1952), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), The Robe (1953) (as the disapproving father of Richard Burton's character), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), Helen of Troy (1956), Darby's Rangers (1958), and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). He also appeared in the Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard 1962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty. He returned to the stage quite frequently, notably on Broadway, in such esteemed productions as Edward, My Son (1948), That Lady (1949) and Billy Budd (1951). In 1959, he portrayed Captain Keller in the award-winning play The Miracle Worker with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. All of these plays were filmed, but Thatcher did not appear in the movie versions. Also a steady fixture on television, he appeared in such made-for-TV films as adaptations of A. J. Cronin's Beyond This Place (1957) and The Citadel (1960),Bonanza(1961), and Brenda Starr (1976). He also played the title role in a Philco Television Playhouse version of Othello and acted in a CBS production of Beyond This Place (1957). Thatcher died of cancer on March 4, 1981, in Thousand Oaks, California, in the Los Angeles area.
Most Known For
Star Trek
as Marplon
Perry Mason
as Walter Frazer
Mission: Impossible
as Archbishop Djelvas
Mission: Impossible
as General Rados Adolph Gollan
Get Smart
as Dr. Braam
The Alfred Hitchcock Hour
as Alva Hardwicke
Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre
as Ab Richards
Lost in Space
as The Space Trader
Climax!
as John Philippson
Climax!
as Fred Beresford
Night Gallery
as Captain of the Lusitania (segment "Lone Survivor")
Thriller
as Jeremy Teal
Gunsmoke
as John Tyson
The Philco Television Playhouse
The Philco Television Playhouse
as Othello
Daniel Boone
as President John Adams
Daniel Boone
as Cyrus Blake / Enoch Blake
The Time Tunnel
as Dr. Everett Holland
One Step Beyond
as Earl of Culdane
