Raymond Mason

Biography

During Raymond Mason’s 20 years of acting in the ITV soap opera Crossroads, he played five different roles. “I don’t think anyone ever noticed,” he said, “and I don’t put it down to versatility.” For trained actors in the days when there was just a handful of drama colleges and fewer vocational courses, the pool of talent was by definition smaller. Many performers found themselves appearing more than once in the same programmes. For Raymond, the roles that he played on British television over 40-odd years numbered more than 1,000, and he appeared in scores of commercials at home and overseas. One of the reasons for Raymond’s success was that he was comfortable in a supporting role and, crucially, adept at not stealing a scene. Through a combination of timing and practised self-effacement he allowed the main star, or joke, to shine. Modest about taking the credit, he effectively enabled the skit. In the late 1960s and 1970s, when comedy was spread across just three TV channels, Raymond appeared in Saturday-night programmes including The Morecambe & Wise Show — he described the double act as “a joy”, The Two Ronnies and alongside Frankie Howerd, Les Dawson and the like. In a 1979 episode of Fawlty Towers called The Kipper and the Corpse, his character attempts to retrieve his hat while Basil is trying to hide the body of a deceased guest. John Cleese later described him as “one of my favourite actors”. The middle child between an older and a younger sister, Raymond was born in 1924 in Great Bridge, Staffordshire, and brought up in Tettenhall near Wolverhampton. His exposure to light entertainment started at an early age as his father, George, who had fought in the First World War, played the piano and organ, wrote his own compositions and was a local bandleader. After shutting up the fish and chip shop in Wolverhampton that he owned with his wife, Elizabeth, George would stuff a keyboard glockenspiel into his bike’s front carrier and set off

Most Known For

Theatre 625

as Telescreen Announcer

BBC Play of the Month

as Rent Steward

Crown Court

as Roy Pettit

Fawlty Towers

as Mr. Zebedee

Wycliffe

as Len Rawlinson

The Good Life

as Mr. Chipchase

Mystery and Imagination

as Dr Tomkins

Terry and June

as Mr. Adams

The Afternoon Play

as Thommo

House of Cards

as Stoat

Enemy at the Door

as Bank Manager

Churchill's People

as Mr Newman

Hunters Walk

as Matt

Budgie

as Clerk of The Court

The Chief

as Pig Farmer

The Darling Buds of May

as Salesman

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

as Third Man

Rita Rudner

Brannigan

as Club Clerk (uncredited)

Muck and Brass

as Reg Palmer