Basil Dignam

Basil Dignam

Birth : 1905-10-24, Sheffield, Metropolitan Borough of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England, UK

Death : 1979-01-31

History

Basil Dignam (24 October 1905 - 31 January 1979) was an English character actor.

Profile

Basil Dignam

Movies

Soft Beds, Hard Battles
Brigadier
In this comedy, set during the Nazi occupation of France, Peter Sellers plays most major male parts, so he stars in nearly every scene, always bumbling in inspector Clouseau-style.
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin
Commissioner McCloud (uncredited)
Carol Hammond, the sexually frustrated wife of a successful London lawyer, is having bizarre, erotic dreams about her uninhibited neighbour, Julia Durer, who presides over noisy, sex and drug filled parties in the house next door. One night, Carol dreams culminate in violent death and she wakes to find her nightmares have become reality - Julia has been murdered and Carol is the main suspect. Was she set up, or did she really do it?
10 Rillington Place
Member of Medical Board
The story of British serial killer John Christie, who committed most or all of his crimes in the titular terraced house, and the miscarriage of justice involving Timothy Evans.
The Games
Sir Harold
From Great Britain, the United States, France, Italy, Australia and behind the Iron Curtain. They are the most superbly conditioned animals in the world. They are also the pawns of powerful nations, the victims of dangerous drugs and the object of many men's ambitions. Once every four years they come together... for the Olympic Games.
Laughter in the Dark
Dealer
Swinging London in the 1960's. Deals with the affection of a middle-aged man for a very young woman, resulting in a mutually parasitic relationship.
Twisted Nerve
Doctor
Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession.
I'll Never Forget What's'isname
Advertising golden boy Andrew Quint is fed up with his fabulously successful life. In very dramatic fashion, he quits his job to return to writing for a small literary magazine. He wants to leave his former life behind, going as far as saying good-bye to his wife and mistresses. He finds, however, that it's not so easy to escape the past.
The Cuckoo Patrol
Snodgrass
Freddie and the Dreamers play part of a Scout troupe that get caught up in a series of misadventures on their way to camp.
The Jokers
David's Bank Manager
Brothers Michael and David Tremayne decide to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London, not for criminal purposes, but to make themselves famous.
Naked Evil
Jim Benson
Jamaican obi-man hexes student hostel manager, eventually causing the manager's death, before being killed himself by the manager's vengeful spirit.
Where the Spies Are
Major Harding
A local doctor is recruited as a cold war spy to fulfill a very important secret mission in the Middle East, only to experience that his mission is complicated by a sexy female double agent.
Rotten to the Core
The General
Rogues Jelly Knight, Scapa Flood, and Lennie the Dip leave prison expecting boss The Duke to have their stash ready to share out. Instead, Duke's girl Sara gives them the news Duke is dead and the money gone on nursing care. They soon discover that Duke is actually running Hope Springs Nature Clinic with the help of most of the local villains. Very strange - and the nearby army camp and Sara's encouragement of Lieutenant Vine would seem to be no coincidence either. Written by Jeremy Perkins
Heavens Above!
Prison Governor
A naive but caring prison chaplain, who happens to have the same last name as an upper class cleric, is by mistake appointed as vicar to a small and prosperous country town. His belief in charity and forgiveness sets him at odds with the conservative and narrow-minded locals, and he soon creates social ructions by appointing a black dustman as his churchwarden, taking in a gypsy family, and persuading the local landowner to provide free food for the church to distribute free to the people of the town. When the congregation leaders realise the mistake and call for the Church of England to remove him, this turns out to be a very, very difficult issue - until one clergyman realises that a British project to send a man into space is in need of an astronaut...
Seven Seas to Calais
Sir Francis Walsingham
Sir Francis Drake fights to take over Spain's treasure routes for Queen Elizabeth I.
Lawrence of Arabia
Cavalry General at Field Briefing (uncredited)
The story of British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological instability threatens to undermine his achievements.
Life for Ruth
Mapleton
John Harris finds himself ostracized and placed on trial for allowing his daughter Ruth to die. His religious beliefs forbade him to give consent for a blood transfusion that would have saved her life. Doctor Brown is determined to seek justice for what he sees as the needless death of a young girl.
Fate Takes a Hand
Wheeler
When a mail bag full of post that was taken in a robbery is discovered fifteen years later, a Post Office employee and local reporter decide to deliver the letters to their original intended addressees. This solitary incident has profound ramifications on several of the recipients and this film tells the story of how just five of those letters changed peoples lives forever.
The Secret Partner
Lyle
A shipping tycoon with a record becomes a suspect when money goes missing from the company vault.
Gorgo
Admiral Brooks
Greedy sailors capture a giant lizard off the coast of Ireland and sell it to a London circus. Then its mother shows up.
The Pure Hell of St. Trinian's
Army Officer
The fourth form monsters' latest trick is their best ever – they have burned down St Trinian’s school! As the girls stand trial, the police breathe a sigh of relief, but miraculously the judge's infatuation with a student means the school is freed. For the authorities, it means a new reign of terror as the girls of St Trinian’s regroup with gleeful anticipation.
Suspect
Dr Childs
A government team researching cures for plague find their results put on the Official Secrets list. One of their number is so incensed by this that he lets the maimed and jealous companion of a female colleague draw him into what, technically, could be a treasonable act.
The Spider's Web
Hugo
Mystery film based on an Agatha Christie story.
A Touch of Larceny
Lt. Cmdr. Evans at P.R.O. (uncredited)
After falling in love with an American woman, Virginia Killain, who is engaged to another man, British Naval Commander Max Easton, hatches a plan that will get him enough money to support Virginia in the lifestyle she is accustomed to. Easton's plan is to disappear for a time making it seem that he has defected to the Soviets taking important Naval secrets from his job at the Admiralty and to return and sue the newspapers for slander. Not everything goes as planned for Commander Easton.
Sentenced for Life
Ralph Thompson
An engineer is wrongly convicted of selling secrets to enemy agents and is sentenced to life in prison. Convinced it was his former partner who framed him, he enlists his son to investigate.
Sapphire
Doctor Burgess
Two Scotland Yard detectives investigate the murder of a young woman of mixed race who had been passing for white. As they interview a spate of suspects -- including the girl's white boyfriend and his disapproving parents -- the investigators wade through a stubbornly entrenched sludge of racism and bigotry.
Carlton-Browne of the F.O.
Security Officer
Great Britain has had an international agreement for the last 50 years with a small pacific island. It has been ignored until the death of their king brings it to the attention of the Foreign Office in Whitehall. They decide to send Cadogan de Vere Carlton-Browne to re-establish friendly relations.
Corridors of Blood
Hospital Chairman
An 1840s British surgeon, experiments with anesthetic gases in an effort to make surgery pain-free. While doing so, his demonstration before a panel of his peers ends in a horrific mishap with his patient awakening under the knife; he is forced to leave his position in disgrace. To complicate matters, he becomes addicted to the gases and gets involved with a gang of criminals, led by Black Ben and his henchman Resurrection Joe.
Further Up the Creek
Flagship Commander
The sequel to 'Up The Creek' sees David Tomlinson return as bumbling navy boffin Lieutenant Humphrey Fairweather. This time he is skipper of the ship Aristotle and, together with his second-in-command, Fairweather wreaks havoc when he is ordered to deliver the Aristotle to its new owners in a mythical Middle-Eastern country.
Rockets Galore
R.A.F. Officer (uncredited)
The inhabitants of Todday are content to live their lives in peace and quiet, until, that is, the government decides their little corner of the world would be the perfect place for a rocket launch site.
Innocent Sinners
Dyson
A neglected girl (June Archer) in post-World War II London befriends street urchins who help her build a tiny garden in a bombed-out church.
Them Nice Americans
Inspector Adams
American airman loves English girl whose father refuses permission for their marriage out of hatred for all Yankees.
The Depraved
Tom Wilton
Fed up with her wealthy but abusive husband, Tom (Basil Dignam), young English homemaker Laura Wilton (Anne Heywood) conspires with her lover, American Army captain Dave Dillon (Robert Arden), to have her boozy spouse meet an "accidental" demise. But a nosy copper (Denis Shaw) suspects foul play, and soon the lovers' crafty scheme deteriorates into fear, distrust and betrayal. Paul Dickson directs this vintage noir thriller.
Three Sundays to Live
Davitt
Band leader Frank Martin is convicted and sentenced to death for murdering the owner of a club in which he had performed. Frank's innocent of the crime, and singer Ruth Chapman can provide him with an alibi. But Ruth is missing, and records show she died years before. As Frank awaits execution, he enlists the help of his heiress girlfriend and his lawyer to clear his name.
The Counterfeit Plan
Police Commissioner
An escaped murderer flees France to England, where he forces an ex-forger, now established as a reputable estate owner, and the forger's daughter who knew nothing of his past, to counterfeit 5-pound notes for mass distribution around the countryside.
Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst
Sir Lionel Henry Lamb, British Ambassador to China
While sailing lawfully up the Yangste in 1949, the British warship Amethyst found its return to the open sea blocked by Communist Chinese shore batteries that unexpectedly opened fire. In charge, Lietenant Commander Kerans was not however prepared for his crew and his ship to remain as a hostage for the Chinese to use as an international pawn.
Brothers in Law
Mr. Justice Emery
Roger Thursby is an overly keen, newly-qualified barrister who rubs his fellow barristers up the wrong way. When he is thrown in at the deep-end, with a particularly hot-tempered judge and tricky case, Thursby learns how to prove himself not only to the judge and fellow barristers but also to the public gallery.
You Pay Your Money
Currie
Crime drama in which a couple get involved in a web of intrigue surrounding the husband's employer.
The Weapon
A boy accidentally shoots a friend with a gun he found in the rubble of a destroyed building. The gun turns out to be a clue in a ten-year-old murder case.
Reach for the Sky
Air Ministry Doctor
The true story of airman Douglas Bader who overcame the loss of both legs in a 1931 flying accident to become a successful fighter pilot and wing leader during World War II.
Port of Escape
Det. Sgt. Crawford
Two sailors dock in London in search of a good time. But when one of them fatally stabs a man during a scuffle in a bar, the pair flee the scene, commandeer a boat and take the three women on board hostage as they try to outrun the law.
The Narrowing Circle
George Pacey
A journalist is framed for the murder of a rival and has to prove his innocence, whatever the cost.
Touch and Go
Stevens
When Jim Fletcher is told by his firm, that his new furniture designs, are not in keeping with the firms image. he threatens to resign, and decides to uproot his family, and emigrate to Australia. but his problems are only just beginning.
They Can't Hang Me
Wing Commander Riddle
A murderer hopes to escape his death sentence by identifying the leaders of a spy ring.
The Quatermass Xperiment
Sir Lionel Dean (uncredited)
The first manned spacecraft, fired from an English launchpad, is first lost from radar, then roars back to Earth and crashes in a farmer's field, and is found to contain only one of the three men who took off in it; and he is unable to talk but appears to be undergoing a torturous physical and mental metamorphosis.
Hammer the Toff
Superintendent
A detective proves that a Robin Hood-type crook did not steal a metal formula.
His Excellency
Security Officer
A trade union official becomes governor of a British island colony
Appointment with Venus
R.A.M.C. Captain
At the outbreak of WWII the British realise they can't prevent the invasion of the Channel Islands. However, someone realises that a prize cow is on the islands and the Nazis mustn't get hold of her. This is the intrepid story of the cow-napping from under the noses of the Nazis.
The Lady with a Lamp
Based on the Reginald Berkeley stage play, this compelling historical drama offers a depiction of the life story of Florence Nightingale (Anna Neagle), the young 19th-century Englishwoman famously drawn to a career in nursing. Traveling to Turkey during the Crimean War, Florence gains a reputation for being devoted to the care of wounded soldiers and for pioneering higher standards for sanitary hospital conditions.
Two on the Tiles
Ship’s Captain
A married couple both face temptations while separated for a few days. The husband meets an attractive female fellow traveler in Paris while the wife accidentally spends a night aboard a Royal Navy ship with a male friend after she is stranded following a party. Despite knowing the essential innocence of both husband and wife, their sinister new butler uses information about their discretions to demand blackmail payments.
Smart Alec
Defense Attorney
A young artist plots "the perfect murder" in order to inherit his wealthy uncle's fortune.
Maytime in Mayfair
Commissionaire (uncredited)
Penniless man-about-town Michael Gore-Brown is delighted to hear he has been left a high-class Mayfair fashion salon. His intention is to sell it as quickly as possible, but on meeting Ellen, chief designer and manager, he quickly changes his mind and turns his attention to courting her.