Richard Davies

Acting

Richard Davies

Born 1926-01-25 · Dowlais, Wales, UK

Dennis Wilfred Davies, known professionally as Richard Davies (25 January 1926 – 8 October 2015), was a Welsh actor.He was probably best known for his performance as the exasperated schoolmaster Mr. Price in the popular LWT situation comedy Please Sir! He used a broad Welsh accent for much of his work, but had used other accents to play a wide range of characters, in addition to several Welsh stereotypes Davies was born in Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, the son of a railway guard. He played Idris Hopkins in Coronation Street between 1974 and 1975, and appeared in several science-fiction series, among them Robert's Robots, Out of the Unknown, and a well-received performance as Burton in the 1987 Doctor Who story Delta and the Bannermen. He played Mr. White in the Fawlty Towers episode "The Kipper and the Corpse" and also appeared in Yes Minister, Wyatt's Watchdogs, May to December, Whoops Apocalypse, 2point4 Children and One Foot in the Grave. In 1970, he appeared in an episode of Two in Clover as Victor Spinetti's character's brother when Spinetti was unavailable. His other main role was in the comedy series Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt where he played Clive. Davies had a recurring role as Jim Sloan in Z-Cars between 1962 and 1965, returning to the series playing different characters in 1968 and in its spin-off Softly, Softly. He also appeared in Dixon of Dock Green, The Sweeney and Van der Valk. He impersonated Clive Jenkins in a spoof edition of Question Time in a sketch on Not the Nine O'Clock News. He appeared in the Please Sir! spin-off series The Fenn Street Gang. In 1951, he made an uncredited appearance in the Ealing Studios comedy The Lavender Hill Mob. He had appeared in films such as Zulu (1964), the film adaptation of Please Sir! (1971), and Under Milk Wood (1972). In 1988, he played the schoolteacher in Queen Sacrifice. He died on 8 October 2015 at the age of 89, survived by his wife and two children, and a son from his first marriage after a battle against Alzheimer's disease.

Acting credits

Zulu poster
7.4

In 1879, during the Anglo-Zulu War, man-of-the-people Lt. Chard and snooty Lt. Bromhead are in charge of defending the isolated and vastly outnumbered Natal outpost of Rorke's Drift from tribal hordes.

Zulu

1964

The Long Arm poster
6.9

Scotland Yard detectives attempt to solve a spate of safe robberies across England beginning with clues found at the latest burglary in London. The film is notable for using a police procedural style made popular by Ealing in their 1950 film The Blue Lamp. It is known in the US as The Third Key.

The Long Arm

1956

Twisted Nerve poster
6.8

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.

Twisted Nerve

1968

The Lavender Hill Mob poster
7.2

A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipments of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country.

The Lavender Hill Mob

1951

Oh! What a Lovely War poster
6.6

The working-class Smiths change their initially sunny views on World War I after the five boys of the family witness the harsh reality of trench warfare.

Oh! What a Lovely War

1969

Some People poster
7.5

Four teen-aged Teds are persuaded to form a rock group and undertake the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme to keep them out of trouble.

Some People

1962

Rebecca's Daughters poster
6.5

Young aristocrat Anthony Raine returns home from India to find the farmers of Pembrokeshire protesting about the rates of a tollgate run by The Whitman Turnpike Trust, headed by the drunken Lord Sarn. So Raine dons a mask and, calling himself Rebecca, instructs his followers to dress as women as they attack the tolls, leading the common people to victory over their masters.

Rebecca's Daughters

1992

The Night My Number Came Up poster
6.9

British Air Marshal Hardie is attending a party in Hong Kong when he hears of a dream, told by a pilot, in which Hardie's flight to Tokyo on a small Dakota propeller plane crashes on a Japanese beach. Hardie dismisses the dream as pure fantasy, but while he is flying to Tokyo the next day, circumstances start changing to align with the pilot's vivid vision, and it looks like the dream disaster may become a reality.

The Night My Number Came Up

1955

Under Milk Wood poster
6.1

The delightful if peculiar story of a day in the life of a small, Welsh fishing village called "Llareggub" in which we meet a host of curious characters (and ghosts) through the 'eyes' of Blind Captain Cat.

Under Milk Wood

1972

The Mutations poster
4.9

A mad scientist crosses plants with people, and the results wind up in a sideshow.

The Mutations

1974

Steptoe & Son Ride Again poster
6.8

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 & Son Ride Again

1973

A Fever in the Blood poster
6.7

A judge, a district attorney and a U.S. senator, each hoping to be elected the next governor, attempt to manipulate a murder trial to advance their own political ambitions.

A Fever in the Blood

1961

The Fiction Makers poster
7.2

Simon Templar is hired by a friend in the book publishing trade to protect one of his stars, a secretive recluse named Amos Klein who writes a popular (and lucrative) series of adventure novels about a manly and suave spy.

The Fiction Makers

1968

Sky West and Crooked poster
5.6

A young, lonely, emotionally challenged teenage girl finds solace in burying dead animals after the sudden traumatic death of a childhood friend 10 years earlier.

Sky West and Crooked

1966

Doctor Who: Delta and the Bannermen poster
6.2

The Doctor and Mel go for a holiday trip to Shangri-La aboard a Nostalgia Tours bus, only to get dragged into the battle against genocide of their fellow passenger Delta, a Chimeron Queen fleeing from the Bannermen who wish to make her species extinct.

Doctor Who: Delta and the Bannermen

1987

Blue Blood poster
4.4

A debauched young aristocrat entrusts the running of his country house to Tom, the butler, on whom he depends absolutely. Before long the servant begins to dominate his master, to the alarm of the newly hired German nanny who senses sinister, demonic intent in Tom's control of the house.

Blue Blood

1974

A Run for Your Money poster
6.2

Two Welsh coal-mining brothers win a trip to London to claim a monetary prize. They are supposed to meet a newspaper reporter who will be their escort. Instead, the brothers are launched into an adventure with some London riff-raff. It is up to the reporter to look out for the brothers, and what a job it turns out to be!

A Run for Your Money

1949

"If Only..." poster
NR

Micky is dead. Brian was his mate. Brian won't go to school, won't go out and he won't talk - except to Micky.

"If Only..."

1980

Please Sir! poster
5.7

Mr. Hedges, the somewhat naive and idealistc teacher of the rebellious Class 5C, lobbies to have them allowed on the school camping trip despite much precedent to the contrary. Once on the camping trip Mr. Hedges pursues the local barmaid and the class indulge in their usual activities. A small feud with some stereotypical upper class children in red blazers is resolved with a false rape allegation. A case of some stolen money is resolved through Mr. Hedges trusting the class. At the final dance Mr. Hedges is ensnared in the romantic clutches of Miss Cutforth, contrary to his wishes.

Please Sir!

1971

The Midas Plague poster
7.0

The Future. Robot labour and free energy make the creation of goods easy and automatic. Now people are continually supplied with more things than they can possibly consume.

The Midas Plague

1965

Dylan: The Life and Death of a Poet poster
6.0

A drama documentary of the life and death of the poet Dylan Thomas, who died in New York 25 years ago at age 39. Alcohol and a doctor's injection of morphine were the immediate causes. Ever since his childhood in Wales his life was a spectacular attempt - comic at times, serious below the surface, tragic at the finish - to survive on his own bizarre terms as the poet to end all poets. By the 1950s, that first postwar decade of uneasiness and change, Dylan Thomas was a legend to his admirers but a burnt-out case to himself. As he tours America to read poetry to rapt audiences, his past crowds in on him, the fractured memories of a man at the end of his tether.

Dylan: The Life and Death of a Poet

1978

City of Fear! poster
NR

A crime writer, looking for inspiration, encounters a group of juvenile delinquents.

City of Fear!

1976

No artwork available
8.0

Poor Willy’s mind has been warped by too many Westerns. He sees gunfighters on every corner, even though he’s in 1960s Swansea. Some think Billy’s simple. His Auntie just thinks he’s creative. But he’s on a dark path as his vivid imaginings grow wilder, and the world in his head comes roaring out into reality.

Where the Buffalo Roam

1966

Queen Sacrifice poster
7.0

Davey, a talented young chess player, and Wil Bevan, his history teacher, are in Bournemouth for the British Chess Championships. When Davey meets up with Helen, a punk girl from London, Wil is faced with the problem of steering his charge through the championship and the trauma of first love.

Queen Sacrifice

1988