Fred Griffiths
Birth : 1912-03-08, Ludlow, Shropshire, England, UK
Death : 1994-08-27
History
Fred Griffiths was born on March 8, 1912 in Ludlow, Shropshire, England as Frederick David Griffiths. He was an actor, known for To Sir, with Love (1967), Steptoe and Son(1972) and The Cruel Sea (1953). He was married to Emily Sadler. He died on August 27, 1994 in London, England.
He was a fireman based in Chelsea during the war and broke into acting by accident. He played a taxi driver in no less than 20 films and appeared in over 100 in total. He died a widower and left one son. Often played taxi drivers and was indeed a qualified London Taxi Driver, who kept his badge and worked as a taxi driver between filming jobs. He appeared in a wartime documentary film, and someone saw his character appeal and started a new career. Appeared in a television commercial on top of Saint Paul's Cathederal in 1973 with Chris Sullivan.
Himself, in archive footage
Documentary about Humphrey Jennings, an English documentary filmmaker from the 1930s to 1950.
Greengrocer
Putting on a pantomime, the kids find they must share the Church hall with a rock group. They decide to present a rock panto.
Window Cleaner
Sexploitation comedy about an aspiring artist. Alan and Sue switch roles: she goes out to work while he looks after the home and concentrates on his painting. However, he fails to anticipate the time-consuming attentions of various female neighbours.
Delivery Man
A porn-store owner orders some new stuff from his supplier, but the delivery address gets mixed with the address of the local Barclays Bank. Here, David (the bank's assistant manager) and his new wife are shocked when photos, then films and finally two girls are sent to them in their bank-supplied flat. They and the banks' head cashier then hatch a plan to get rid of the porn—without letting their boss, the local police and David's mother in on what is happening.
Wilf
A professional footballer suffers an injury which could jeopardise his career.
Barman
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.
A young singer from Wales becomes a pop star but soon tires of his success and returns home.
Bert King
Dad's Army was a 1971 feature film based on the BBC television sitcom Dad's Army. Directed by Norman Cohen, it was filmed between series three and four and was based upon material from the early episodes of the television series. The film told the story of the Home Guard platoon's formation and their subsequent endeavours at a training exercise.
Taxi Driver
The deputy manager of a London bank has worked out a way to rob the branch of £200,000. When he becomes involved with the attractive Lady Dorset he decides to go ahead with his plan. He needs her help and that of her philandering spendthrift husband. It all comes down to a matter of trust.
Taxi Driver
A former British spy stumbles into in a plot to overthrow Communism with the help of a supercomputer. But who is working for whom?
Dustman
A gang of hapless crooks, led by Sidney James, successfully perpetrate a robbery only to be caught after the fact. Fifteen years later they emerge from prison intent on retrieving their stolen loot - and discover a police station has been built over its hiding place.
Landlord (uncredited)
Miss Marple and Mr. Stringer are witnesses to the death by heart attack of elderly, rich Mr. Enderby. Yet they have their doubts about what happened. The police don't believe them, thus leading Miss Marple to yet again investigate by herself.
Taxi Driver
When a law-abiding demolition expert is duped by a gang of criminals into helping them he is caught and jailed. When he is released he goes straight and then notices a leading citizen in his town is cheating his neighbours.
Ambulance Driver (uncredited)
Doctors Burke and Hare leave the confines of St Swithins for the world of general practice, stopping off on the way as patients at the Foulness Anti-cold Unit. Hare then takes up a position as junior in a well-healed G.P.'s surgery while Burke continues to sow his doctorial wild oats.
Mr Jennings
Lewis Gilbert's classic comedy drama portrays the antics of a British Army Searchlight Squad during World War II. Lieutenant Ogleby (Ian Carmichael) has his work cut out to keep his "legionnaires" at their post and not rampaging through the local countryside. The McGaffey brothers (Benny Hill and Tommy Steele) create havoc with their light-fingers and light-loving with the local girls, whilst Smithy (Johnny Briggs) pines for his sweetheart.
1st Porter
Angela Barrows is a man-eating business woman sent by her American employer to investigate their export opportunities in Edinburgh. En route she meets Robert MacPherson, a businessman who asks for her help to bring his company into the 20th Century. The staff, led by Mr Martin, has other ideas—and a battle between the old and new business methods soon breaks out.
Dealer
In this crime drama, a mugger accidently kills a man during a robbery and finds himself blackmailed into cracking a nightclub safe. The mugger escapes by double crossing the blackmailer by stealing the money and his girlfriend to boot. Unfortunately the police are in hot pursuit.
Charlie
Naive Stanley Windrush returns from the war, his mind set on a successful career in business. Much to his own dismay, he soon finds he has to start from the bottom and work his way up, and also that the management as well as the trade union use him as a tool in their fight for power.
a Billingsgate porter
At the Earndale by-election natural history expert and TV personality Bob Wilcot for the Conservatives finds himself up against Billingsgate girl Stella Stoker for the socialists. Amateur politician against committed activist. But could it become boy-who-fancies-girl against girl-who-fancies-boy? The party agents are soon colluding against such a disaster.
Ambulanceman
Set in Haven Hospital where a certain men's ward is causing more havoc than the whole hospital put together. The formidable Matron's debut gives the patients a chill every time she walks past, with only Reckitt standing up to her. There's a colonel who is a constant nuisance, a bumbling nurse, a romance between Ted York and Nurse Denton, and Bell who wants his bunion removed straight away, so after drinking alcohol, the men decide to remove the bunion themselves!
Street Orator
Based on the play by Ted Willis, the film is set in the years just before World War II, when England hadn't completely dug itself out of the worldwide depression. Melvyn Hayes is featured as an aimless teenager, who tries to escape his squalid surroundings by entering a life of crime. He falls in with local hoodlum Herbert Lom, who holds the rest of the slum citizens in the grip of fear including Hayes' own family. No Trees in the Street chronicles Hayes' sordid progress from nickel-and-dime thefts to murder.
Mr. Hodges
Bittersweet story about London's unwanted children and the good people trying to help them. Ann is a social worker, while Bill is an electrician whose contract with the local care home introduces him to the children and Ann. Events start to escalate out of control when a child takes possession of a loaded gun.
Customer
Unassuming planning engineer David Webb finds himself on the Queen Elizabeth to New York with instructions to negotiate a high-powered loan. His lack of confidence means he is completely out of his depth, at least until he finds his personality changes every day during the hour the ship's clocks stop to make allowance for their westward passage.
Old Sweat
A British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches. Some come forward to help, others were less willing.
Fred
Crime drama in which a couple get involved in a web of intrigue surrounding the husband's employer.
Taxi Driver
Battle-axe Emma Hornett dominates her hen-pecked husband Henry, his meek sister Edie and daughter Shirley. Shirley is to marry young sailor Albert,raised in an orphanage,and he and best man Carnoustie stay with the Hornetts on the eve of the wedding, though Emma makes sure the stag night is a brief one. Next day Albert fails to show up for the wedding. He eventually turns up at the house and confides in the vicar that if family life is anything like the Hornetts he wants no part of it. When the Hornetts are told this Emma declares that she sees that has been a "very wicked woman" and will mend her ways but, as the young couple eventually marry and move into their own house , one wonders how long her change of heart will last.
Gamble (Uncredited)
U.S. Embassy employee Lee Cochrane and his wife, Sue, receive a shock when they discover that their 18-month-old son, Simon, has disappeared in London. He was last seen with their nanny, and the couple seemingly have no leads that might help police Detective Craig in his investigation. The media sensationalizes the incident, causing an unnecessary distraction as the couple prepares to confront the culprit face-to-face.
Junk Man (uncredited)
Five oddball criminals planning a bank robbery rent rooms on a cul-de-sac from an octogenarian widow under the pretext that they are classical musicians.
Gymnasium Attendant
An American is visiting Britain and finds himself in possession of a briefcase full of secret documents that the spies of many different countries seem determined to get.
Seaman (uncredited)
The second of the seven "Doctor" films, based on Richard Gordon's novels and released between 1954 and 1970. A bachelor doctor goes to sea to escape the boredom of shore practice, but studies the nurses more than medicine, and Brigitte Bardot is around.
Taxi Driver
A petty thief breaks into the home of a psychiatrist and gets caught in a web of a doctor who wishes to experiment on him and a doctor's wife who wishes to seduce him.
Milche
Two small boys are playing in a wood. The younger boy has a revolver and, not understanding that the gun differs from his toy pistol, plays 'highwayman' on the road and holds up a cyclist; the gun goes off, killing the cyclist. Both boys are unaware of the tragic consequences of their game. The body and the gun are found by Bob Carter, who had recently quarreled with the victim in the presence of their workmates, and both men had uttered threats. The evidence is strong, and Bob is arrested for murder...
Removal Man
A TV set given as a retirement present is sold on to different households causing misery each time.
Barman on Ferry
Based on The Hand and the Flower, a novel by Jerrard Tickell, A Day to Remember stars Stanley Holloway as Charley Porter, captain of London darts team. When the team travels to the French town of Boulogne for the annual darts tournament, a good time is had by all--and more besides. Jim Carver one of the team's members, is reunited with a little French girl he'd befriended during the war, who has now developed into a beautiful young woman. And Fred Collins makes a poignant journey to the hotel where he'd honeymooned with his late wife. The film works best as a low-key comedy-drama; it is least successful when it ventures into O. Henry territory and strains for "surprise" story twists. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Cabbie
A saloon owner falls in love with the abused wife of a heavy gambler. He is snared into a web of intrigue when an ex-girlfriend is found murdered in his apartment.
Ice Cream Seller (Uncredited)
Two friends driving in the London to Brighton vintage car rally bet on which of them will be the first to arrive back home.
Newspaper Seller (uncredited)
A bitter burglar, a prostitute and an elderly shoplifter spend their first day out of jail.
Taxi Driver
Legendary England cricketer Sam Palmer (Jack Warner) is due to bat in his final test match against Australia. He is desperate for his son Reggie (Ray Jackson) to see his final innings. But Reggie prefers poetry to cricket and when he is offered the opportunity to read his poetry to England's greatest playwright Alexander Whitehead (Robert Morley) on the last day of the test, the relationship between father and son is tested to the limit. As Sam prepares for his final knock, the conflict with his son weighs heavily on his mind, but he is also upset over England's young batsman and ladies-man, Syd Thompson (George Relph), dating the woman whom he hopes to marry.
Gracey
At the start of World War II, Cmdr. Ericson is assigned to convoy escort HMS Compass Rose with inexperienced officers and men just out of training. The winter seas make life miserable enough, but the men must also harden themselves to rescuing survivors of U-Boat attacks, while seldom able to strike back. Traumatic events afloat and ashore create a warm bond between the skipper and his first officer
Crump
A drama about parole officers to follow the successful Ealing police story of "The Blue Lamp"(1950) . Various sub-plots follow the parole officers and their charges.
The Spiv
The hero discovers his estranged wife dead and tries to frame her lover for the murder. He becomes involved with the criminals who make various unsuccessful attempts on his life while the police clear up the mystery.
Military Policeman #2
On a journey from Paris to London, a Briton, a Frenchman and an American bond with each other and indulge in a romantic fantasy about a girl they see.
Spiv
When an unexploded WWII bomb is accidentally detonated in Pimlico, it reveals a treasure trove and documents proving that the region is in fact part of Burgundy, France and thus foreign territory. The British government attempts to regain control by setting up border controls and cutting off services to the area.
Truck Driver (uncredited)
A young woman leaves her backwards hometown to go to London to find a runaway suitor. What she doesn't know is that she has inherited a strange ability; if she's in the vicinity of a machine for more than fifteen minutes, it stops working.
Taxi Driver (uncredited)
Life is not going well for the Huggetts. Father has lost his job. Jimmy and his wife cannot get to South Africa where he has a new job. So the family decide that they should go to South Africa by truck. With their travelling companion they travel across the desert which includes a brush with the law.
Sam
During a rainy Sunday afternoon, an escaped prisoner tries to hide out at the home of his ex-fiance.
British film written and directed by Humphrey Jennings, filmed in documentary style showing the lives of firefighters through the Blitz in World War II.
Base Sergeant (uncredited)
The Nine men of the title are a British WWII Army patrol stuck in a desert fort during the African campaign. The Men must defend the fort against the Italian and German troops until they can be relieved.
