Bernard Miles

From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Bernard James Miles Baron Miles CBE 27 September 190714 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 196162 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 oneact 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 bassbaritone voice that worked well in theatre and film as well as being much in demand for voiceovers 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 youtubecom 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 Miless written works include The British Theatre 1947 Gods Brainwave 1972 and Favorite Tales from Shakespeare 1972 In 1981 he coauthored the book Curtain Calls with JC 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 CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia