David Healy

Acting

David Healy

Born 1929-05-15 · Manhattan, New York, USA

A rotund, jovial New Yorker, David Healy obligingly played every manner of stereotypical American in British films and on television for more than thirty years. The son of an Australian father and an American mother, he spent much of his youth in Texas. Studying at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, he majored in drama and befriended another young acting hopeful, named Larry Hagman. David first arrived in England as a member of the U.S. Air Force and soon wound up, along with Hagman, in the cast of a touring show written by John Briley. This later grew into The Airbase (1965), a 25-minute BBC sitcom (with David as Staff Sergeant Tillman Miller), which took a humorous look at British-American cultural differences at an RAF base. Considering his job prospects to be rather more lucrative in Britain -- in keeping with the 'bigger fish, smaller pond' theory - David soon found himself in almost continuous demand for any part which required an affable or imperious American. His long gallery of characters included diplomats, businessmen, bureaucrats, spooks, military brass, and so on. There were rare occasions, when he acted against type and played 'Britishers' -- a notable point in case being a likeable Dr. Watson, opposite charismatic Ian Richardson as Sherlock Holmes, in The Sign of Four (1983). His comedic side was showcased in guest appearances with Dick Emery and Kenny Everett and a with couple of turns in Jeeves and Wooster (1990). Though married and settled in Surrey, David took job offers on both sides of the Atlantic. He was glimpsed as a cleric in Patton (1970) and in Robert Aldrich's doomsday thriller Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977); well-cast as Teddy Roosevelt in Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977); and he had recurring roles in TV's favourite soapie of the day, Dallas (1978). British TV audiences saw him guesting in just about every major crime series, from The Saint (1962) and Department S (1969), to The Persuaders! (1971). Simultaneously, from 1967, David pursued a successful career as a stage actor in classical plays with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. In 1975, he re-visited his roots, playing Falstaff at a Shakespeare festival in Dallas. Ever versatile, David found another calling in musicals, appearing in "Kismet", "Call Me Madam" and "The Music Man". He received much praise for his interpretation of Runyonesque gambler Nicely-Nicely Johnson (played definitively on screen by Stubby Kaye) in "Guys and Dolls", performing show-stopping encores of "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat". - IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis

Acting credits

You Only Live Twice poster
6.6

A mysterious spacecraft captures Russian and American space capsules and brings the two superpowers to the brink of war. James Bond investigates the case in Japan and comes face to face with his archenemy Blofeld.

You Only Live Twice

1967

Diamonds Are Forever poster
6.4

Diamonds are stolen only to be sold again in the international market. James Bond infiltrates a smuggling mission to find out who's guilty. The mission takes him to Las Vegas where Bond meets his archenemy Blofeld.

Diamonds Are Forever

1971

Labyrinth poster
7.3

Frustrated with babysitting on yet another weekend night, Sarah, a teenager with an active imagination, summons the Goblins to take her baby stepbrother away. When little Toby actually disappears, Sarah must follow him into a fantastical world to rescue him from the Goblin King. Guarding his castle is the labyrinth itself, a twisted maze of deception, populated with outrageous characters and unknown dangers.

Labyrinth

1986

Supergirl poster
5.4

After losing a powerful orb, Kara, Superman's cousin, comes to Earth to retrieve it and instead finds herself up against a wicked witch.

Supergirl

1984

Patton poster
7.4

"Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with Patton's career in North Africa and progresses through the invasion of Germany and the fall of the Third Reich. Side plots also speak of Patton's numerous faults such his temper and habit towards insubordination.

Patton

1970

The Ninth Configuration poster
6.4

Army psychiatrist Colonel Kane is posted to a secluded gothic castle housing a military asylum. With a reserved calm, he indulges the inmates' delusions, allowing them free rein to express their fantasies.

The Ninth Configuration

1980

Bomber Harris poster
7.8

Biography of Arthur Harris (aka "Bomber Harris") of RAF Bomber Command, during WW2 - in particular his strategy of heavy bomber "Millenium Raids" on German cities.

Bomber Harris

1989

Twilight's Last Gleaming poster
6.5

A renegade USAF general, Lawrence Dell, escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo near Montana and threatens to provoke World War 3 unless the President reveals details of a secret meeting held just after the start of the Vietnam War between Dell and the then President's most trusted advisors.

Twilight's Last Gleaming

1977

Phase IV poster
6.3

Arizona ants mock the food chain on their way to a desert lab to get two scientists and a woman.

Phase IV

1974

The Prophet poster
NR

Robot QT-1, aboard an orbiting space station, controls the massive energy beam which transmits the sun's power to receivers on Earth. But QT-1 (Cutie) has some strange bees in his positronic bonnet. How could weak creatures of protoplasm create a nearly invincible, totally logical entity like himself? It is up to his human supervisors, Powell and Donovan, to convince Cutie of his niche in creation before his new robot theology becomes a threat to all life on Earth.

The Prophet

1967

Lust for a Vampire poster
5.9

In 1830, the Karnstein heirs use the blood of an innocent to bring forth the evil that is the beautiful Mircalla - or as she was in 1710, Carmilla. The nearby Finishing School offers rich pickings not only in in the blood of nubile young ladies but also with the headmaster who is desperate to become Mircalla's disciple, and the equally besotted and even more foolish author Richard Lestrange.

Lust for a Vampire

1971

It Had to Be You poster
6.1

Sparks fly when Anna Penn and Charlie Hudson meet. Unfortunately, they're both engaged to other people. In fact, they're staying at the same New York City hotel in order to work on wrapping up the last details of their nuptials. Over days and evenings of joint wedding planning, the two grow closer -- and start to wonder if they're getting married to the right people after all.

It Had to Be You

2000

Madame Sin poster
7.2

A CIA agent is used as a pawn in an insane woman's plan to steal a Polaris submarine.

Madame Sin

1972

Endless Night poster
6.1

Shiftless dreamer Michael Rogers fantasizes about a lifestyle above his means and marries a wealthy, young girl who just came of age. They hire a famous architect to build their dream home amidst a series of suspicious incidents. The spouse has dark intentions toward his naive, inexperienced bride. Secrets from his past and sinister ties to their house guest Greta lead to a terrible turn of unexpected events.

Endless Night

1972

The Double Man poster
6.3

In a complex piece of espionage the Russian secret service attempts to kidnap a high ranking officer in the CIA and replace him with a one of its own.

The Double Man

1967

Turnaround poster
NR

Magicians grandson and his girlfriend and their friends are victimized by a bike gang of her former boyfriend. Using grandfather's house and props from father's magic business they take revenge.

Turnaround

1987

Double Image poster
5.4

This film tells the true-life story of Yuri Nosenko, a top Soviet KGB agent who defected to the West at the height of the Cold War in 1962.

Double Image

1986

Only When I Larf poster
7.1

A master conman leads a pair of British accomplices on an international adventure of highly profitable dirty tricks.

Only When I Larf

1968

Isadora poster
6.2

A biography of the dancer Isadora Duncan, the 1920s dancer who forever changed people's ideas of ballet. Her nude, semi-nude, and pro-Soviet dance projects as well as her attitudes on free love, debt, dress, and lifestyle shocked the public of her time.

Isadora

1968

No artwork available
4.9

The story of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during their 12-year stay at the White House.

Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years

1977

Lace 2 poster
NR

While in the first part, Lili searched for her mother, she now questions her mom on the identity of her father.

Lace 2

1985

Lee Oswald: Assassin poster
NR

The life of Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who shot President John F. Kennedy, as reported to the Warren Commission enquiry into the circumstances of the assassination.

Lee Oswald: Assassin

1966

The Sign of Four poster
6.5

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson try to track down the Great Mogul, the second-largest diamond in the world.

The Sign of Four

1983

Assignment K poster
6.3

Philip Scott, the boss of a toy company, is secretly also the chief of a British spy organization. Scott's cover is destroyed when enemy agents kidnap his girlfriend to force him to reveal the identities of his fellow spies.

Assignment K

1968