Wilfrid Brambell

Wilfrid Brambell

Birth : 1912-03-22, Dublin, Ireland

Death : 1985-01-18

History

Henry Wilfrid Brambell (22 March 1912 – 18 January 1985) was an Irish television and film actor and comedian, best remembered for his role in the television series Steptoe and Son. He also performed alongside The Beatles in their debut film A Hard Day's Night, playing the fictional grandfather of Paul McCartney.

Profile

Wilfrid Brambell

Movies

Sword of the Valiant: The Legend of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Porter
Gawain was a squire in King Arthur's court when the Green Knight burst in and offered to play a game with a brave knight. Gawain journeys across the land, learning about life, saving damsels, and solving the Green Knight's riddle.
The Terence Davies Trilogy
Robert Tucker (old age)
These three semi-autobiographical short films by Terence Davies follow the journey of Robert Tucker, first seen as a hangdog child in "Children" (1976), then as a hollow-eyed middle-aged man in "Madonna and Child" (1980), and finally as a decrepit old man in "Death and Transfiguration" (1983). Dreamlike and profoundly moving.
Death and Transfiguration
Robert Tucker
In sepia tones, the film moves back and forth among three periods in Robert Tucker's life: he's an old man, near death, in a nursing home at Christmas time; he's in middle age caring for his cheerful but dying mother; he's a lad at Catholic school, practicing his catechism, going to confession for the first time, receiving the Eucharist, surrounded by the singing of a children's choir. In middle age, he looks through his scrapbook of photographs of muscular men; he recalls lovers and his mother's cremation. A nurse sits beside him on his last night; in his last breath, he reaches forward and back.
The Island of Adventure
Uncle Jocelyn
Four British teens on vacation visit an island and discover that a terrorist group is using it as their headquarters.
High Rise Donkey
Ben Foxcroft
The efforts of three children, who live in high rise flats, to save a donkey from two small-time crooks who want to sell it as horsemeat, by providing a temporary stable for the donkey in the block of high-rise flats.
The Adventures of Picasso
Alice B. Toklas
Already in his childhood, Pablo Picasso shows talent for painting and is sent to the Academy of Arts in Madrid. He becomes a painter but has to live in Paris in poverty. But one day he is discovered by a rich American millionaire and starts to earn money. But he wastes his talent by painting plates. He meets the famous people of the 1920s; Gertrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas, Appolinaire, Hitler and Churchill.
Holiday on the Buses
Bert Thompson
Due to a female passenger falling out of her top whilst running for the bus Stan is distracted and crashes the bus resulting in the depot managers car being written off. As a result Stan, Jack and Blakey are fired. Stan and Jack soon get new jobs as a bus crew at a Pontins holiday resort but discover that Blakey has also gotten a job there as the chief security guard.
Steptoe and Son Ride Again
Steptoe / Albert
Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are rag-and-bone men, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live amicably together at the junk yard. Always on the lookout for ways to improve his lot, Harold invests his father's life savings in a greyhound who is almost blind and can't see the hare. When the dog loses a race and Harold has to pay off the debt, he comes up with another bright idea. Collect his father's life insurance. To do this his father must pretend to be dead.
Steptoe and Son
Albert Steptoe
Albert Steptoe and his son Harold are rag-and-bone men, complete with horse and cart to tour the neighbourhood. They also live together at the junk yard. Harold, who likes the bright lights in the West End of London, meets a stripper, marries her and takes her home. Albert is furious and tries every trick he knows to drive the new bride from his household.
Catch Me a Spy
Beech
While on vacation, a woman's husband is taken by the Russian government. After one attempt fails, she begins looking for a suitable spy to capture and trade in exchange for her husband, but she develops an attraction to the one she thinks is a good candidate.
Some Will, Some Won't
Henry Russell
Four people go to great lengths to obtain the fortune left in a will by a very wealthy practical joker.
Carry On Again Doctor
Mr. Pullen (uncredited)
Dr. Nookey is disgraced and sent to a remote island hospital. He is given a secret slimming potion by a member of staff, Gladstone Screwer, and he flies back to England to fame and fortune. But others want to cash in on his good fortunes, and some just want him brought down a peg or two.
Giacomo Casanova: Childhood and Adolescence
Malipieri
Through the childhood and the adolescence of Giacomo Casanova (from his memoirs), this is a description of how people live in the Venice of the 18th century: customs, habits, medicine, religion and most of all - the omnipresence of hypocrisy. Written by Yepok
Cry WoIf
Delivery man
A highly imaginative boy involves his friends in a series of false alarms, with the result that nobody will come to his aid when he is involved in a dangerous situation.
Witchfinder General
Master Loach
England, 1645. The cruel civil war between Royalists and Parliamentarians that is ravaging the country causes an era of chaos and legal arbitrariness that allows unscrupulous men to profit by exploiting the absurd superstitions of the peasants; like Matthew Hopkins, a monster disguised as a man who wanders from town to town offering his services as a witch hunter.
Lionheart
Dignett
A lion escapes from a circus but is rescued and protected by a young boy.
Alice in Wonderland
White Rabbit
Alice in Wonderland (1966) is a BBC television play based on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. It was directed by Jonathan Miller, then most widely known for his appearance in the long-running satirical revue Beyond the Fringe.
Where the Bullets Fly
Train Guard
In a spoof of the spy genre a secret agent chases a missing formula that can drain nuclear energy from an element named Spurium,
San Ferry Ann
Grandad
A motley crew of British characters ride The San Ferry Ann to the shores of France where they embark on a weekend of calamity. The campervan family led by Dad and Mum (David Lodge and Joan Sims) create chaos from the moment they set their tires on the shore resulting in frequent run-ins with the Gendarme, while Lewd Grandad (Wilfred Brambell) finds his own misadventures with a newly acquainted friend, a mad German ex-soldier (Ron Moody). Also aboard for the ride is a saucy hitchhiker (Barbara Windsor) who causes a few heads to turn including that of a fellow traveller (Ronnie Stevens) who pursues her affection with comic results. By the end of this weekend the French may well be wishing to say 'au revoir' to these trouble-making tourists. San Ferry Ann is a humorous take on the tradition of the British get-away. A classic sound effect comedy that sits with the likes of similarly praised titles such as 'The Plank', 'Futtock's End' and 'Rhubarb Rhubarb'.
The Importance of Being Earnest
TV adaptation of the Oscar Wilde play. Jack pretends to be his foolish younger brother, Ernest in order to be a model of moral rectitude to his young ward, Cecily. And he intends to propose to Gwendolyn--that is until he discovers that she loves him because his name is Ernest.
A Hard Day's Night
Grandfather
Capturing John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr in their electrifying element, 'A Hard Day's Night' is a wildly irreverent journey through this pastiche of a day in the life of The Beatles during 1964. The band have to use all their guile and wit to avoid the pursuing fans and press to reach their scheduled television performance, in spite of Paul's troublemaking grandfather and Ringo's arrest.
Go Kart Go
Junkman Fred
Jimpy leads a gang of kids as they attempt to beat another gang, no matter how underhanded their tactics are.
Crooks in Cloisters
Phineas
Having pulled off the smallest ever train robbery, Little Walter and his crew decide to get out of London. The six of them set up business in a disused monastery off the Cornish coast, despite the fact that none of them really qualifies as a monk - least of all Walter's moll Bikini. Bit by bit, the quiet way of life starts becoming a habit.
The Small World of Sammy Lee
Harry
The compère of a seedy strip club struggles to keep one step ahead of the bookies to whom he owes money.
In Search of the Castaways
Bill Gaye
Two teenagers, Mary (Hayley Mills) and Robert (Keith Hamshere) are lead by Professor Paganel (Maurice Chevalier) on a search expedition for the children's shipwrecked sea captain father. This Disney film was based upon Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children.
The Boys
Norman Albert Brewer
A night watchman at a garage is found murdered, and four teddy boys are put on trial for the crime. Witnesses and suspects give differing accounts of the lead-up to the crime, and the truth emerges.
The Sinister Man
Lock-Keeper
When a corpse is found in the Thames, the only clue is that the dead man was killed by a karate or judo expert.
What a Whopper
Postie
A writer attempts to raise some cash by writing a book about the Loch Ness Monster. No publisher will take it because they all think there isn't really a monster. The writer and some of his friends make a fake monster and take photographs and then travel to Scotland to see if they can convince the locals.
Flame in the Streets
Mr. Palmer senior
Flame in the Streets is a 1961 British drama film directed by Roy Ward Baker. Racial tensions manifest themselves at home, work and on the streets during Bonfire Night in the burgeoning West Indian community of early 1960s Britain. Trades union leader (Mills) fights for the rights of a black worker but struggles with the news that his own daughter is planning to marry a West Indian, much against his own logic and the prejudice of his wife.
Serious Charge
Verger
Howard Phillips, a vicar who's new in the town of Bellington, wants to reach out to youth. The previous vicar's daughter, Hester Peters, who fears being a spinster, wants to be his wife. He tells her he's not interested. When he confronts a tough kid about something the youth has done, the lad sets out to frame the vicar. Hester, who's walked in on the confrontation, backs the youth's story. The town sides with her and the lad, turning against Phillips. He has a crisis of faith. What options does he have; can no one help him, his reputation, or his calling?
Captured
Directed by cult British director John Krish, the film was sponsored by the Army Kinematograph Corporation. This tightly plotted drama shows British POWs enduring brainwashing and torture during the Korean War, thereby revealing what a soldier could expect if he was ever captured by enemy forces.
The Salvage Gang
Tramp
Four children try to raise money to replace a broken saw, taking them on an unexpected journey through the capital.
Break-In
A dramatised training film for the Military Police showing the correct methods and procedures that should be used in solving a crime.
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Old Man / Thin Prisoner
A man who works for 'The Party' (an all powerful empire led by a man known only as 'Big Brother') begins to have thoughts of rebellion and love for a fellow member. Together they look to help bring down the party.
Another Shore
Arthur Moore
A young Irishman comes up with an unusual plan to get the money to emigrate to Tahiti. One of the Ealing comedies.
Odd Man Out
Standing Passenger on Tram (uncredited)
Belfast police conduct a door-to-door manhunt for an IRA gunman wounded in a daring robbery.