Derek Benfield(1926-2009)

Diminutive, balding British actor and playwright. The son of a journalist, he trained at RADA and first acted on allied forces radio during military service in World War II. On stage from 1948, he also wrote more than thirty plays, beginning in 1953, many of them comedies. From the 1960's, he became a prolific character actor, often in patriarchal roles, on British television.