Sebastian Shaw

Acting

Sebastian Shaw

Born — Died

1905-05-29 — 1994-12-23

Place of birth

Holt, Norfolk, England, UK

Known for

Acting

Credits

59 titles

Sebastian Lewis Shaw was an English actor, director, novelist, playwright and poet. During his 65-year career, he appeared in dozens of stage performances and more than 40 film and television productions. Shaw was born and brought up in Holt, Norfolk, and made his acting debut at age eight at a London theatre. He studied acting at Gresham's School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Although he worked primarily on the London stage, he made his Broadway debut in 1929, when he played one of the two murderers in Rope's End. He appeared in his first film, Caste, in 1930 and quickly began to create a name for himself in films. He described himself as a "rotten actor" as a youth and said his su…

Known for

Casualty poster
6.2

Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.

Casualty

1986

Theatre 625 poster
7.2

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

Theatre 625

1964

Thirty-Minute Theatre poster
4.2

An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.

Thirty-Minute Theatre

1965

Playhouse poster
7.0

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Playhouse

1974

Return of the Jedi poster
7.9

Luke Skywalker leads a mission to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, the Emperor prepares to crush the Rebellion with a more powerful Death Star, and the Rebel fleet mounts a massive attack on the space station. Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader in a final climactic duel before the evil Emperor.

Return of the Jedi

1983

Rumpole of the Bailey poster
7.1

Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.

Rumpole of the Bailey

1975

Film credits

2000s · 1 titles

1980s · 8 titles

Return of the Jedi poster
7.9

Luke Skywalker leads a mission to rescue his friend Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hutt, the Emperor prepares to crush the Rebellion with a more powerful Death Star, and the Rebel fleet mounts a massive attack on the space station. Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader in a final climactic duel before the evil Emperor.

Return of the Jedi

1983

High Season poster
5.1

On the isle of Rhodes, Katherine, an expatriate English photographer, lives with her daughter. A young local wants to encourage tourism, so he commissions a sculpture of the Unknown Tourist for the town square; the sculptor he brings to Rhodes is Kate's ex-husband. Also there to see Kate is Sharp, an aging antiquarian and her dear friend. He has something important to tell her. As Kate, her ex, and Sharp sort out things that go back years, two English tourists bumble about, one thinking he's fallen in love with Kate, his wife thinking she's found her own lover. A rare vase, a spy, old friendships, the statue's unveiling, and off-hand English sorting-out play into the resolution.

High Season

1987

Timon of Athens poster
8.5

Timon loves to give parties and objects to friends, but when he cannot pay his creditors, his "friends" refuse to help him, and he becomes a misanthropic hermit.

Timon of Athens

1981

The Weather in the Streets poster
4.2

Passion comes calling when a man suffering through an unhappy marriage in 1920s England runs into first love.

The Weather in the Streets

1983

The Master Builder poster
NR

Ibsen's play is the story of Halvard Solness, Master Builder of a town in Norway. Solness is a successful architect but he's afraid of the being surpassed by those younger than himself. The arrival of a young woman called Hilda stirs up memories and feelings with stories of a promise he made her many years ago.

The Master Builder

1988

Fothergill poster
NR

John Fothergill, aesthete and scholar, becomes the proprietor of the Spread Eagle, in Thame, Oxfordshire, with the intent of turning it into the most celebrated Inn in England, catering to the brightest lights in London's literati.

Fothergill

1981

No artwork available
NR

The life and work of Anglo-Irish painter, Jack B Yeats (1871-1957)

Assembled Memories: Jack B. Yeats, 1871-1957

1985

No artwork available
NR

Freed at last by death from tyranny of an elderly, querulous mother, Esme Fanshaw is persuaded to take a man, Amos Curry, into her house as a paying guest. At first wary of him, Esme becomes increasingly fond of this dapper little man with his mysterious summer occupation. When she finally learns the nature of this occupation she is at first shocked then sympathetic.

A Bit of Singing and Dancing

1982

1960s · 4 titles

1940s · 8 titles

The Glass Mountain poster
6.8

An aspiring composer, in the British Air Force for WWII, is downed in Italy and rescued by an Italian girl. He returns home to his wife, inspired to write an opera and aware that he's fallen in love with his rescuer.

The Glass Mountain

1949

Journey Together poster
6.6

Two Englishmen train with the Royal Air Force, ending with a bombing raid on Berlin.

Journey Together

1945

Three Silent Men poster
5.8

An inventor of a deadly weapon to be used against the allies is injured in a crash. Surgeon, Sir James (Sebastian Shaw) saves his life but learns of the inventors plot.

Three Silent Men

1940

East of Piccadilly poster
6.2

A series of murders in the West End of London baffle the officers of Scotland Yard and draw the interest of a crime reporter to the case.

East of Piccadilly

1941

The Flying Squad poster
6.2

Inspector Bradley of Scotland Yard is on the trail of the murderous ringleader of a smuggling organization in London.

The Flying Squad

1940

Now You're Talking poster
8.0

Commissioned by the Ministry of Information and specifically target working class audiences; ‘Now you’re talking’ follows a plant worker, who lets slip vital information about some overnight research on a captured enemy aircraft. This inevitably leads to this most important of secrets falling into the lap of the enemy.

Now You're Talking

1940

Landfall poster
7.6

A British coastal command pilot is charged with neglect when it is thought that he has sunk a British submarine rather than a German U-boat. Unable to live with his actions, he volunteers for a deadly mission. His girlfriend meanwhile tries to prove that he is innocent.

Landfall

1949

No artwork available
NR

The armaments production programme is being sabotaged by a gang of Germans. A few arrests are made but the destruction of a vital plant goes on. Test pilot 'Bulldog' Bill Watson plunges headlong into the mystery.

Bulldog Sees It Through

1940

1930s · 18 titles

The Squeaker poster
6.3

London's jewel thieves are under the thumb of a mysterious fence, who ruthlessly exposes any thief who crosses him. Desperate, Scotland Yard re-hires ex-Inspector Barrabal who, as a known drunkard, is ideally suited to go undercover with a faked criminal record (which may spoil his chances with lovely Carol Stedman).

The Squeaker

1937

The Spy in Black poster
6.4

A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.

The Spy in Black

1939

Men Are Not Gods poster
5.6

Actor Edmund Davey becomes a star overnight when his wife and co-star teams up with the secretary of a noted stage critic to produce a glowing review of his 'Othello'.

Men Are Not Gods

1936

Caste poster
10.0

The daughter of a Cockney drunkard marries a young aristocrat who is presumed killed in action in WWI. When she gets the news she goes to stay with her aristocratic in-laws.

Caste

1930

Farewell Again poster
6.5

Farewell Again is a multiplotted British comedy/drama about soldiers on leave and the people they've left. Given a six-hour pass after a tour of duty in India, several British Tommies (among them Robert Newton, Sebastian Shaw and Anthony Bushell) try to unravel their domestic tribulations before having to ship out again. American expatriate Tim Whelan was the directorial hand who kept the various plot threads from entangling, while another Hollywood vet, James Wong Howe, manned the cameras. The film became instantly dated with the advent of World War II, but in its own time Farewell Again was a box-office smash. The film was issued in the US as Troopship.

Farewell Again

1937

The Lad poster
6.2

An ex-con searching for a hidden jewel is assumed by a group of people to be investigating them.

The Lad

1935

The Ace of Spades poster
6.5

The wife of a candidate for Parliament is having an affair with the brother of her husband's rival. Her lover is running for election on a promise of building a railway that the community needs, but a wealthy landowner won't give permission for the railway to be built over his land. When the landowner is later found dead, suspicion falls on the adulterous candidate.

The Ace of Spades

1935

No artwork available
10.0

The manager of a gambling club tries to swindle the owner.

The Way of Youth

1935

No artwork available
8.0

1939 BBC studio production of Peggy Barwell’s play Prison without Bars, set in a girls’ reformatory, which was adapted from a German play by Gina Kaus and Otto Edgar Eis. An inmate of a girl's reformatory competes with its superintendent for the affections of its young doctor.

Prison Without Bars

1939

No artwork available
8.0

Jack Brewster is a pennyless English lad who learns that he has inherited 6 million pounds sterling from a recently deceased relative. But soon learns that he must spend 500,000 pounds in 60 days to inherit the rest of the money, or forfeit the entire inheritance.

Brewster's Millions

1935

Tomorrow We Live poster
7.5

Financier Sir Charles Hendra, on the brink of ruin, contemplates ending his own life. After pondering the difficult decision, Charles decides to invite twelve similarly desperate individuals to dinner so they can all discuss their problems. Will his generosity change the course of their lives?

Tomorrow We Live

1936

No artwork available
8.0

A sausage-making tycoon rents a castle from an impoverished aristocrat.

Birds of a Feather

1936

Jury's Evidence poster
10.0

The Foreman of an Old Bailey jury refuses to accept circumstantial evidence and helps solve murder case.

Jury's Evidence

1936

No artwork available
8.0

The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony

Julius Caesar

1938

No artwork available
10.0

No synopsis available yet.

Little Miss Nobody

1933

Three Witnesses poster
6.0

At a firm of contractors, a partner is accused of murdering his brother following a takeover bid.

Three Witnesses

1935

No artwork available
7.0

The heir to a London department store must learn the business by working his way through various menial jobs incognito first. However, a crooked manager has arranged for a cracksman, just out of prison, to join the staff. Each is mistaken for the other.

Department Store

1935

No artwork available
7.0

A British adventure film directed by George King

Adventure Ltd.

1935

Series credits

Casualty poster
6.2

Drama series about the staff and patients at Holby City Hospital's emergency department, charting the ups and downs in their personal and professional lives.

Casualty

1986

Theatre 625 poster
7.2

Theatre 625 is a British television drama anthology series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC2 from 1964 to 1968. It was one of the first regular programmes in the line-up of the channel, and the title referred to its production and transmission being in the higher-definition 625-line format, which only BBC2 used at the time.

Theatre 625

1964

Thirty-Minute Theatre poster
4.2

An anthology of short plays shown on BBC Television between 1965 and 1973, used in part at least as a training ground for new writers, on account of its short length, and which therefore attracted many writers who later became well known.

Thirty-Minute Theatre

1965

Playhouse poster
7.0

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.

Playhouse

1974

Rumpole of the Bailey poster
7.1

Rumpole of the Bailey is a British television series created and written by the British writer and barrister John Mortimer. It stars Leo McKern as Horace Rumpole, an aging London barrister who defends any and all clients, and has been spun off into a series of short stories, novels, and radio programmes.

Rumpole of the Bailey

1975

BBC2 Play of the Week poster
7.0

An anthology of plays and novels adapted into feature length TV movies, broadcast on BBC2 from September 1977 to April 1979.

BBC2 Play of the Week

1977

Out of the Unknown poster
7.1

Out of the Unknown is a British television science fiction anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in four series between 1965 and 1971. Each episode was a dramatisation of a science fiction short story; some were created for the series, but most were adaptations of already published stories. The first three years were exclusively science fiction, but that genre was abandoned in the final year in favour of horror and fantasy. A number of episodes were wiped during the early 1970s, as was standard procedure at the time.

Out of the Unknown

1965

Reilly: Ace of Spies poster
7.0

Reilly, Ace of Spies is a 1983 television miniseries dramatising the life of Sidney Reilly, a Russian Jew who became one of the greatest spies ever to work for the British. Among his exploits, in the early 20th-century, were the infiltration of the German General Staff in 1917 and a near-overthrow of the Bolsheviks in 1918. His reputation with women was as legendary as his genius for espionage.

Reilly: Ace of Spies

1983

Theatre Night poster
NR

A series of dramas featuring staged theatre plays.

Theatre Night

1985

Village Hall poster
8.0

Village Hall is an anthology drama series produced by Granada between 1974–75. It is entirely set in a village hall, with each episode highlighting a different use to which the space is put by locals.

Village Hall

1974

The Great War poster
8.3

Extensive archive footage and sound effects, linked with contemporary classic music of the era, brings to life the vast history of World War I, concentrated by the commentaries by Michael Redgrave, and some of the finest actors of the 20th-century.

The Great War

1964

Chimera poster
6.0

A journalist investigates the death of his girlfriend at a fertility clinic where she worked and uncovers a plot to create a new breed of human based on crossing the genetics of man and ape.

Chimera

1991

Dead of Night poster
8.0

Dead of Night is a British television anthology of supernatural fiction, produced by the BBC and broadcast on BBC2 in 1972. It ran for a single series; of its seven 50-minute episodes, only three—'The Exorcism', 'Return Flight', and 'A Woman Sobbing'—are known to survive in the Archives. Another programme made by the same production team under Innes Lloyd, 'The Stone Tape', intended to be the eighth episode, does survive in the Archives but was not broadcast under the Dead of Night banner.

Dead of Night

1972

The Old Curiosity Shop poster
7.5

The Old Curiosity Shop is a 1979 BBC miniseries based on the novel by Charles Dickens. It was directed by Julian Amyes, and adapted by William Trevor. A kindly shop owner whose overwhelming gambling debts allow a greedy landlord to seize his shop of dusty treasures. Evicted and with no way to pay his debts, he and his granddaughter flee.

The Old Curiosity Shop

1979

Chelworth poster
NR

A new Earl, Michael Anstey, returns to England having inherited the family estate and is determined to restore Chelworth House to its former glory.

Chelworth

1989