Alan Wheatley

Alan Wheatley
Wheatley as the Sheriff of Nottingham in The Adventures of Robin Hood
Born	19 April 1907 Tolworth, Surrey, England, United Kingdom
Died	30 August 1991 (aged 84) Westminster, London, England, UK
Cause of death	Heart attack
Occupation	Actor and radio announcer
Years active	1936 - 1987

Alan Wheatley (19 April 1907 – 30 August 1991) was an English actor and former radio announcer. He is perhaps best known for playing the polished villain the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1950s TV series The Adventures of Robin Hood, with Richard Greene playing Robin Hood. In 1951, Wheatley had played Sherlock Holmes in the first TV series about the fictional detective, but no recordings of it are known to exist.

Life and career

Born in Tolworth, Surrey, the son of a bank clerk, William Henry Wheatley and his wife, Rose (née Towers), Alan Wheatley worked as a radio announcer before turning to stage and screen acting in the 1930s, as a player during the black-and-white era of film and television. He had originally been an industrial psychologist. Wheatley made his film debut in Conquest of the Air (1936), which remained unreleased for four years. During the Second World War, he worked for BBC Radio, as both an actor and an announcer.

Wheatley starred as Sherlock Holmes in the 1951 BBC TV series, which was the first such series though not the Holmes character's first appearance on television. The program aired live for six episodes, and apparently no recordings were made. In the later Robin Hood series, Wheatley appeared regularly as the Sheriff in the first three seasons; in the fourth and final season, his role was mostly taken over by that of the Deputy Sheriff (John Arnatt) as a result of Wheatley's departure from the series. He also had roles in Danger Man and The Avengers. Wheatley played the first character to be killed on-screen by a Dalek in Doctor Who, when he appeared as Thal leader Temmosus in the 1963–64 serial The Daleks.

His film credits include: Caesar and Cleopatra (1945), The Rake's Progress (1945), Brighton Rock (1947), Calling Paul Temple (1948), The Pickwick Papers (1952), Spaceways (1953), Simon and Laura (1955), A Jolly Bad Fellow (1964) and Tomorrow at Ten (1964) among others. He also appeared in Inn for Trouble (1960), a film spin-off of the TV comedy The Larkins.

Wheatley was also a prolific stage actor. His theatre credits included Clifford Bax's The House of Borgia (1935), the lead in This Way to the Tomb, and the tormented soul, Harry, in The Family Reunion. He appeared in two versions of the thriller play Rope, in 1950 and 1953, and starred as Abanazar in the Cole Porter musical pantomime Aladdin' at the London Coliseum in 1960. He also played the Abbé in a BBC radio adaptation of The Count of Monte Cristo, with the young Andrew Sachs (as Dantes) in 1987, and the High Lama in the 1981 BBC Radio 4 "Classic Serial" version of Lost Horizon, with Derek Jacobi as Hugh Conway.

Wheatley died in Westminster, London in 1991^[1] of a heart attack, aged 84.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1936	The Conquest of Air	Borelli
1937	William Tindale	William Tindale
1945	The Rake's Progress	Edwards
	Caesar and Cleopatra	Persian
1946	Appointment with Crime	Noel Penn
	Spring Song	Menelli
1947	Jassy	Sir Edward Walker
	The End of the River	Irygoyen
	Brighton Rock	Fred Hale
1948	Corridor of Mirrors	Edgar Orsen
	Counterblast	M.W. Kennedy
	Calling Paul Temple	Edward Lathom
	Sleeping Car to Trieste	Karl / Charles Pool
1949	It's Not Cricket	Felix
	For Them That Trespass	Librarian	Uncredited
1951	Home to Danger	Hughes
1952	Whispering Smith Hits London	Reith
	The Pickwick Papers	Fogg
1953	Spaceways	Dr Smith
	The Limping Man	Inspector Braddock
	Small Town Story	Nick Hammond
1954	The Javenese Dagger	Victor	short film
	The Diamond	Thompson Blake
	The House Across the Lake	Inspector MacLennan
	Delayed Action	Mark Cruden
	Elizabethan Express	Narrator	Voice
1955	Simon and Laura	Adrian Lee
1958	The Duke Wore Jeans	King of Ritallia
1960	Inn for Trouble	Harold Gaskin
1961	Frederic Chopin	Unknown	short film
	The Shadow of the Cat	Inspector Rowles
1963	Master Spy	Paul Skelton
	Tomorrow at Ten	Assistant Commisoner Bewley
1964	A Jolly Bad Fellow	Epicene
	Clash By Night	Ronald Grey-Simmons

Television

Year	Title	Role	Episode(s)	TV Movies
1937	The Importance of Being Earnest	Lane
1938	The Gaylord Quex	Unknown
	Bardell Against Pickwick	Sam Weller
	Julius Caesar	Titinius
	The Importance of Being Earnest	Lane
1939	Edna's Fruit Hat	Sid
	The Tempest	Alonso
	Caesar's Friend	Judas
	Katharine and Petruchio	Hortensio
	Annajanska, the Bolshevik Empress	Schniedekind
	The Chance of a Lifetime	Joe Bessano
	Magic	The Stranger
	Fiat Justitia	Unknown
	Mr. Jones Dines Out	The waiter
	The Circle	Arnold Cheney
1946	A Phoenix to Frequent	Tegeus-Chromis
	Bardell against Pickwick	Sam Weller
1947	Everyman	Five Wits
	Caesar's Friend	Judas
	The Little Dry Thorn	Lot
	The Round Dozen	Ashenden
	Edward II	Gaveston
	The Coventry Nativity Play	Herod
1948	Volpone	Mosca
	King Lear	King's fool
	He That Should Come
1949	The Happiest Days of Your Life	Mr. Billings
	The Coventry Nativity Play	Herod
1950	Mrs. Dot	James Blenkinsop
	Triple Bill	Unknown
	Treasures in Heaven	Andrew Carne
	The Tragedy of King Richard III	King Richard III
1950 1951	BBC Sunday-Night Theatre	Rupert Cadell Humphrey Rhodes Roderigo Richard de Beauchamp Fainall Lozovsky Sire de Maletroit	Season 1: (3 episodes) Season 2: (4 episodes)
1951	Sherlock Holmes	Sherlock Holmes	Season 1: (6 episodes)
	The Inch Man	Tommy Mitzner	Season 1, Episode 6: "Moments so Few"
1952	The Twelfth Brother	Pharaoh	TV Short
1953	Rope	Rupert Cadell	TV Movie
	Jesus of Nazareth	Pilate	TV MIni-series (uncredited)
1954	Prelude to Glory	Marquis of Conygham	TV Movie
1955- 1960	The Adventures of Robin Hood	Sheriff of Nottingham	Season 1: (26 episodes) Season 2: (26 episodes) Season 3: (21 episodes) Season 4: (8 episodes)
1956	Rheingold Theatre	Nicolis	Season 4, Episode 7: "Dimitrios"
	Colonel March of Scotland Yard	O'Brien	Season 1, Episode 9: " The Second Mona Lisa"
	Adventure Theater	Victor	Season 1, Episode 2: " The Javanese Dagger"
	The Count of Monte Cristo	Bennet Colonel Michelle	Season 1: (2 episodes)
1957 1958	The New Adventures of Charlie Chan	Professor Ambrose Pietro Monti	Season 1: (2 episodes)
1958	Tales from Dickens	Mr. Murdstone	Season 1: (2 episodes)
1958 1962 1965	ITV Play of the Week	Jonathan Brewster Unknown Cardinal of Palermo	Season 3, Episode 50: "Arsenic and Old Lace" Season 8, Episode 7: "When the Kissing Had to Stop" Season 11, Episode 2: "The Successor"
1959	A Farthings Damages	Marcus Dane	TV Movie
1960	International Detective	Colonel Duggan	Season 1, Episode 14: "The Oakland Case"
	An Arabian Night	Jafar	TV Movie
	No Hiding Place	Dandy Henderson	Season 2, Episode 20: "Two-Time Loser"
1961	Danger Man	Alexis	Season 1, Episode 33: "The Hired Assassin"
	You Can't Win	Hearn	Season 1, Episode 3; "Professional Status"
	Gilbert and Sullivan: The Immortal Jesters	Richard D'Oyly Carte	Season 1: (3 episodes)
1961 1963	Maigret	UnknownJulien Chabot	Season 2, Episode 6: "The Lost Sailor" Season 4, Episode 2: "The Fontenay Murders"
1962	The Six Proud Walkers	Oscar Lilywhite	Season 1: (2 episodes)
1963	It Happened Like This	Hastings	Season 1, Episode 5: "The missing Line"
1964	Doctor Who	Temmosus	Season 1: (2 episodes)
	The Protectors	James Benson	Season 1, Episode 12: "Channel Crossing"
	The Midnight Men	Prince Rohat	Season 1, Episode 1: "The Man from Miditz"
1964 1965	Crane	Michaud Dr. Hilfe	Season 2, Episode 13: " Man Without A Past"
1965	Danger Man	Solicitor	Season 1, Episode 14: " Such Men are Dangerous"
1967	The Baron	Lord Mountford	Season 1, Episode 23: "The Edge of Fear"
	Mystery Hall	Alex Ramsey	Season 1: (6 episodes)
1969	The Avengers	Dangerfield	Season 7, Episode 25: "Who Was That Man I Saw You With?"
1970	Department S	Carter	Season 2, Episode 19: "A Ticket to Nowhere", (Last appearance)

References

1. GRO Register of Deaths: SEP 1991 15 1514 WESTMINSTER - Alan Wheatley, DoB = 19 Apr 1907 aged 84

External links

• Alan Wheatley at the Internet Movie Database