Ronald Fraser

Acting

Ronald Fraser

Born 1930-04-11 · Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, England, UK

Ronald Gordon Fraser (11 April 1930 – 13 March 1997) was a British character actor, who appeared in numerous British plays, films and television shows from the 1950s to the 1990s. Fraser was a familiar figure in West End clubs during the 1960s, having had a long-standing reputation as a heavy drinker. His credits include The Long and the Short and the Tall (1961), ‘’The Best of Enemies (1961)’’Flight of the Phoenix (1965), The Avengers (1965), The Killing of Sister George (1968), The Misfit (1970–1971), Pygmalion (1973), Swallows and Amazons (1974), Come Play With Me (1977), The Wild Geese (1978), Spooner's Patch (1979), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), Tangiers (1982), Absolute Beginners (1986), Minder (1985–1989), Scandal (1989), Let Him Have It (1991), Taggart (1992), and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1993) Ronald Fraser was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, the son of an interior decorator and builder from Scotland. He attended Ashton-under-Lyne Grammar School. He was further educated in Scotland and did national service as a lieutenant in the Seaforth Highlanders. Whilst serving in Benghazi, North Africa, he appeared in the Terence Rattigan comic play French Without Tears. He trained as an actor at RADA, graduating in 1953. He appeared at Glasgow's Citizens' Theatre, and joined the Old Vic repertory company in 1954, making his first London appearance in The Good Sailor, a stage adaptation of Herman Melville's novel, Billy Budd. In the West End, he appeared in The Long and the Short and the Tall (1959), The Ginger Man, The Singular Man, Androcles and the Lion (1961), The Showing Up of Blanco Posnet (1961), Purple Dust by Seán O'Casey, Entertaining Mr Sloane, Joseph Papp's production of The Pirates of Penzance and High Society. He also played Falstaff in a production of The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. His only Broadway show was the flop La Grosse Valise by Robert Dhéry, Gérard Calvi and Harold Rome. He appeared in numerous television roles from 1954, and in nearly 50 films from 1957, mostly in comedies. He was notable as Basil "Badger" Allenby-Johnson in the 1970s television series The Misfit (1970–1971). In 1996 Fraser voiced the chief judge in The Willows in Winter.

Acting credits

Trail of the Pink Panther poster
5.1

The Pink Panther diamond is stolen once again from Lugash and the authorities call in Chief Inspector Clouseau from France. His plane disappears en-route. This time, famous French TV reporter Marie Jouvet sets out to solve the mystery and starts to interview everybody connected to Clouseau.

Trail of the Pink Panther

1982

The Wild Geese poster
6.8

A British multinational company seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator in central Africa. It hires a band of (largely aged) mercenaries in London and sends them in to save the virtuous but imprisoned opposition leader who is also critically ill and due for execution. Just when the team has performed a perfect rescue, the multinational does a deal with the vicious dictator leaving the mercenary band to escape under their own steam and exact revenge.

The Wild Geese

1978

The Sundowners poster
6.7

In the Australian Outback, the Carmody family--Paddy, Ida, and their teenage son Sean--are sheep drovers, always on the move. Ida and Sean want to settle down and buy a farm. Paddy wants to keep moving. A sheep-shearing contest, the birth of a child, drinking, gambling, and a racehorse will all have a part in the final decision.

The Sundowners

1960

The Flight of the Phoenix poster
7.2

A cargo aircraft crashes in a sandstorm in the Sahara with less than a dozen men on board. One of the passengers is an airplane designer who comes up with the idea of ripping off the undamaged wing and using it as the basis for a replacement aircraft they need to build before their food and water run out.

The Flight of the Phoenix

1965

No artwork available
7.5

A former CIA agent is forced by crooked agents of the government to pose as a notorious smuggler of the Tangier Straits who happens to be a stiff

Tangiers

1982

Scandal poster
6.0

An English bon-vivant osteopath is enchanted with a young exotic dancer and invites her to live with him. He serves as friend and mentor, and through his contacts and parties she and her friend meet and date members of the Conservative Party. Eventually a scandal occurs when her affair with the Minister of War goes public, threatening their lifestyles and their freedom.

Scandal

1989

The Killing of Sister George poster
6.2

When June Buckridge arrives at her London flat and announces 'They are going to murder me', her long-time lover and doll-cuddling flat mate Alice 'Childie' McNaught realizes that things are going to change. For June is referring to her character 'Sister George', a lovable nurse she portrays in a popular daytime serial. To make matters worse, the widowed executive at the BBC responsible for the decision to kill off Sister George - Mercy Croft is also a predatory lesbian who is after Childie and will stop at nothing to get what she wants.

The Killing of Sister George

1968

Too Late the Hero poster
6.4

A WWII film set on a Pacific island. Japanese and allied forces occupy different parts of the island. When a group of British soldiers are sent on a mission behind enemy lines, things don't go exactly to plan. This film differs in that some of the 'heroes' are very reluctant, but they come good when they are pursued by the Japanese who are determined to prevent them returning to base.

Too Late the Hero

1970

Absolute Beginners poster
5.5

A musical adaptation of Colin MacInnes' novel about life in late 1950s London. Nineteen-year-old photographer Colin is hopelessly in love with model Crepe Suzette, but her relationships are strictly connected with her progress in the fashion world. So Colin gets involved with a pop promoter and tries to crack the big time. Meanwhile, racial tension is brewing in Colin's Notting Hill housing estate...

Absolute Beginners

1986

Obituaries poster
NR

Two old men in a nursing home engage in an ongoing competition. When the home is due to receive a visit from a member of the royal family, only one of them will be able to be represented.

Obituaries

1990

Come Play with Me poster
4.8

Two alluring young ladies live with their beautiful widowed aunt on a secluded wooded estate. The women have earned themselves quite a reputation in the surrounding towns and men from all over the region are frequent visitors to the small countryside home, hoping to encounter one, or preferably both, of the seductive nieces. Of course, the aunt has equally strong desires and refuses to be outdone. Soon all three are offering the many courters the chance to Come Play with Me!

Come Play with Me

1977

The V.I.P.s poster
6.1

Wealthy passengers fogged in at London's Heathrow Airport fight to survive a variety of personal trials.

The V.I.P.s

1963

In Search of the Castaways poster
6.5

Two teenagers, Mary (Hayley Mills) and Robert (Keith Hamshere) are lead by Professor Paganel (Maurice Chevalier) on a search expedition for the children's shipwrecked sea captain father. This Disney film was based upon Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children.

In Search of the Castaways

1962

Hardcore poster
3.8

Aka Hardcore, aka Frankly Fiona. The heavily fictionalised fantastical autobiography of the fantastic 70s sex superstar Fiona Richmond, played by Fiona herself!

Hardcore

1977

Let Him Have It poster
6.6

In 1950s England, slow-witted Derek Bentley falls in with a group of petty criminals led by Chris Craig, a teenager with a fondness for American gangster films. Chris and Derek's friendship leads to their involvement in the true case which would forever shake England's belief in capital punishment.

Let Him Have It

1991

Heavy Weather poster
8.0

At Blandings Castle, the Earl of Emsworth only cares about his prize pig 'The Empress' and is wilfully ignorant of the fact that his brother is planning to publish a book which might ruin the family name forever. Moreover, the Earl's nephew might cause the family some major damage by getting married to a terribly unsuitable chorus girl. An adaptation of P.G. Wodehouse's novel of the same name.

Heavy Weather

1995

The Best of Enemies poster
6.9

During World War II, a plane full of RAF fighter crashes in the Ethiopian desert and they are met upon by an enemy Italian patrol that allows them to go free. But, when the Brits are given orders to attack the Italians, lots of problems ensue.

The Best of Enemies

1961

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Phantom Train of Doom poster
6.1

Indy is ordered to locate and destroy a powerful German artillery gun that is mysteriously able to appear and disappear at will, leaving death and destruction in its wake. Assisting him is a colorful group of soldiers nicknamed "The Old and the Bold" because of their old age and reckless courage. Their mission takes them on a dangerous journey across the German-held veldt via wagon train and hot-air balloon. Overcoming all manner of obstacles presented by the enemy, his own side and the harsh African terrain, Indy relentlessly follows the trail of the mega-gun right into the bowels of a secret mountain hideout, where he plans an explosive end for the phantom train of doom.

The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Phantom Train of Doom

1999

The Long and the Short and the Tall poster
6.7

Based on a play by Willis Hall. A troop of British soldiers are out in the jungle to record jungle noises and troop noises in the jungle so that the recordings can be played back by other troops to divert the enemy to their whereabouts. As they progress to what they think is closer to the base camp they find themselves farther and farther from radio range until the only channel they can get clearly is that of a Japanese broadcast. They now realize they are probably only 10 to 15 miles from a Japanese camp! The tension is added to by rowdy and openly admitted "non-hero" Private Bamforth who has nothing good to say about anyone and especially Corporal Johnstone (who holds an equal dislike for Bamforth). When a Japanese soldier is taken as their prisoner, the true colours of each man comes to the surface

The Long and the Short and the Tall

1961

Pygmalion poster
NR

When linguistics professor Henry Higgins boasts that he can pass off Cockney flower girl Eliza Doolittle as a princess with only six months' training, Colonel George Pickering takes him up on the bet. Eliza moves into Higgins's home and begins her rigorous training after the professor comes to a financial agreement with her dustman father, Alfred. But the plucky young woman is not the only one undergoing a transformation.

Pygmalion

1981

Fallen Angels poster
2.0

Two men go off on a golfing trip, leaving their wives to amuse themselves as best they can. The wives each receive a postcard from Maurice Duclos, a former lover both had before their marriages.

Fallen Angels

1974

No artwork available
NR

A British soldier returns to India to find the woman he fell in love wit

The Brahmin Widow

1968

Fathom poster
6.0

While touring abroad in Europe, beautiful American skydiver Fathom Harvill gets wrapped up in international intrigue when Scottish spy Douglas Campbell recruits her to help him on a secret mission. Before long, Fathom realizes that no one around her, including the mysterious Peter Merriweather, can easily be trusted, leading to various adventures that involve bull fighting, beaches and, of course, romance.

Fathom

1967

The Counterfeit Constable poster
5.7

An extremely funny film about a group of French rugby supporters who go to see a match at Twickenham and one of them inadvertently receives a blow in the mouth from someone else's elbow. In the process he loses some front teeth and needs to see a dentist urgently ... this is only the beginning of a long series of adventures befalling our poor friend who doesn't speak a word of English and who nevertheless needs to return urgently to France to get married in the following days sporting a decent mouth !

The Counterfeit Constable

1964