1907-09-27 ( 117 years old ) in Uxbridge, Hillingdon, Middlesex, England, UK
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE (27 September 1907–14 June 1991) was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre opened in the City of London since the 17th century.
Miles was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex and attended Bishopshalt School in Hillingdon. While his parents were respectively a farm labourer and a cook, he was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. He entered the theatre in the 1930s, soon appearing in films. Like many actors, he featured prominently in the patriotic cinema during the Second World War, including classics of the genre such as In Which We Serve and One of Our Aircraft Is Missing. He also had an uncredited role in the WWII classic The First of the Few, released in the US as Spitfire.
His typical persona as an actor was as a countryman, with a strong accent typical of the Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire counties. He was also, after Robert Newton, the actor most associated with the part of Long John Silver, which he played in a British TV version of Treasure Island, and in an annual performance at the Mermaid commencing in the winter of 1961-62. Actors in the annual theatrical productions included Spike Milligan as Ben Gunn, and, in the 1968 production, Barry Humphries as Long John Silver. It was Miles who, impressed by the talent of John Antrobus originally commissioned him to write a play of some sort. This led to Antrobus collaborating with Milligan to produce a one-act play called The Bed Sitting Room, which was later adapted to a longer play, and staged by Miles at The Mermaid on 31 January 1963, with both critical and commercial success.
He had a pleasant rolling bass-baritone voice that worked well in theatre and film, as well as being much in demand for voice-overs. As a performer, he was most well known for a series of comic monologues, often given in a rural dialect. These were recorded and sold as record albums, which were quite popular. Some of his comic monologues are currently available on youtube.com.
Miles was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1953, was knighted in 1969, and was granted a life peerage as Baron Miles, of Blackfriars in the City of London in 1979. He was only the second British actor ever to be given a peerage (the first was Laurence Olivier).
Miles's written works include "The British Theatre" (1947), "God's Brainwave" (1972), and "Favorite Tales from Shakespeare" (1972). In 1981, he co-authored the book Curtain Calls with J.C. Trewin.
He died in Yorkshire.
His daughters are the actress Sally Miles and the artist Bridget Miles. His son John Miles was a Grand Prix Driver in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the Lotus team.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Bernard Miles, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies
The Lady and the Highwayman
1988-12-03
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
1988-11-22
Treasure Island
1982-01-01
Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
1980-03-30
Run Wild, Run Free
1969-03-28
The Specialist
1966-08-21
Heavens Above!
1963-05-20
Barbara Hepworth
1961-09-17
Sapphire
1959-11-02
Tom Thumb
1958-12-04
Wuthering Heights
1958-05-09
The Vision of William Blake
1958-01-01
Saint Joan
1957-05-08
The Smallest Show on Earth
1957-04-09
Fortune Is a Woman
1957-03-13
Zarak
1956-12-01
Tiger in the Smoke
1956-11-27
Moby Dick
1956-06-27
The Man Who Knew Too Much
1956-05-16
Never Let Me Go
1953-03-18
The Magic Box
1952-01-01
Henry Moore
1951-04-30
Chance of a Lifetime
1950-04-24
The Guinea Pig
1948-10-26
Fame Is the Spur
1947-09-23
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
1947-03-12
Great Expectations
1946-12-26
Carnival
1946-12-02
Tawny Pipit
1944-04-28
Tunisian Victory
1944-03-23
Two Fathers
1944-01-19
The New Lot
1943-01-01
In Which We Serve
1942-09-17
The Day Will Dawn
1942-06-08
One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
1942-04-24
The Big Blockade
1942-01-19
Sabotage!
1942-01-01
The Common Touch
1941-11-15
Quiet Wedding
1941-04-19
Freedom Radio
1941-02-04
The Dawn Guard
1941-01-01
Pastor Hall
1940-05-28
Contraband
1940-05-11
Band Waggon
1940-03-23
The Lion Has Wings
1939-11-03
The Spy in Black
1939-08-03
They Drive by Night
1938-12-01
The Citadel
1938-10-29
The Challenge
1938-09-14
Strange Boarders
1938-05-01
The Rebel Son
1938-02-02
Crown v. Stevens
1936-08-03
Twelve Good Men
1936-03-01
Late Extra
1935-11-19
The Guv'nor
1935-10-01
The Love Test
1935-06-30
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