Richard Wattis

Acting

Richard Wattis

Born 1912-02-25 · Wednesbury, Staffordshire, England, UK

Richard Cameron Wattis (25 February 1912 – 1 February 1975) was an English actor. After leaving the family business, Wattis became an actor. His debut was with Croydon Repertory Theatre, and he made many stage appearances in the West End in London. His first appearance in a film was A Yank at Oxford (1938), but war service interrupted his career as an actor. He served as a second lieutenant in the Small Arms Section of Special Operations Executive at Station VI during World War II (James Bond author, Ian Fleming worked in the same section). He is best known for his appearances, wearing his thick-rimmed round spectacles, in British comedies of the 1950s and 1960s, often as a "Man from the Ministry" or similar character. He was also involved as the secretary to Lord Scrumptious in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Such appearances included the St Trinian's films (The Belles of St Trinian's, Blue Murder at St Trinian's, and The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery) as Manton Bassett, a civil servant who was the Deputy Director of Schools in the Ministry of Education, where he was often seen frowning and expressing indignation at the outrageous behaviour of other characters. To American audiences, Wattis is probably best known for his performance as the British civil servant Northbrook in The Prince and the Showgirl (1957). He broke from this typecasting in his later films, such as his starring role in Games That Lovers Play. Wattis's other films included Hobson's Choice, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Carry On Spying, The Colditz Story, Dentist on the Job, Very Important Person, The Happiest Days of Your Life, and The Longest Day. He also appeared on television, including a long-running role in Sykes, and appearances in Danger Man, The Prisoner, The Goodies, Hancock's Half Hour, and Father, Dear Father. From 1957 to 1958, he appeared as Peter Jamison in three episodes of the American sitcom Dick and the Duchess.

Acting credits

Casino Royale poster
5.3

Sir James Bond is called back out of retirement to stop SMERSH. In order to trick SMERSH, James thinks up the ultimate plan - that every agent will be named 'James Bond'. One of the Bonds, whose real name is Evelyn Tremble is sent to take on Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat, but all the Bonds get more than they can handle.

Casino Royale

1967

The Longest Day poster
7.6

The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"

The Longest Day

1962

The Man Who Knew Too Much poster
7.4

An American doctor and his wife, a former singing star, witness a murder while vacationing in Morocco, and are drawn into a twisting plot of international intrigue when their young son is kidnapped.

The Man Who Knew Too Much

1956

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang poster
6.8

A hapless inventor finally finds success with a flying car, which a dictator from a foreign government sets out to take for himself.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

1968

The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery poster
6.2

The all-girl school foil an attempt by train robbers to recover £2.5 million hidden in their school.

The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery

1966

Come Fly with Me poster
5.0

Three airline hostesses combine their work crossing the Atlantic with searching for a rich handsome man to marry.

Come Fly with Me

1963

Barnacle Bill poster
6.6

A seasick sea captain commands an amusement pier despite local opposition. Released in the U.S. as 'All at Sea'

Barnacle Bill

1957

Kind Hearts and Coronets poster
7.6

When his mother eloped with an Italian opera singer, Louis Mazzini was cut off from her aristocratic family. After the family refuses to let her be buried in the family mausoleum, Louis avenges his mother's death by attempting to murder every family member who stands between himself and the family fortune. But when he finds himself torn between his longtime love and the widow of one of his victims, his plans go awry.

Kind Hearts and Coronets

1949

Operation Crossbow poster
6.7

Allied agents infiltrate the Nazi rocket complex at Peenemunde in order to obtain their secrets and sabotage the plant. The film alternates between German developments of the V-1 missile and V-2 rocket (with a German cast speaking their own language) and discovery by British Intelligence of the weapon.

Operation Crossbow

1965

Hobson's Choice poster
7.4

A widower refuses to let his three daughters marry in order to avoid paying settlements, so they'll just have to outsmart him.

Hobson's Choice

1954

The Man Who Never Was poster
7.0

The true story of a British effort to trick the Germans into weakening Sicily's defenses before the 1943 attack. A dead soldier is dressed as a British officer and outfitted with faked papers showing that the Allies were intending to invade occupied Greece. His body is put into the sea where it will ultimately drift ashore and the papers be passed along to German Intelligence.

The Man Who Never Was

1956

The Abominable Snowman poster
6.2

A kindly English botanist and a gruff American promoter lead an expedition to the Himalayas in search of the legendary Yeti.

The Abominable Snowman

1957

The Prince and the Showgirl poster
6.4

An American showgirl becomes entangled in political intrigue when the Prince Regent of a foreign country attempts to seduce her.

The Prince and the Showgirl

1957

Bunny Lake Is Missing poster
7.2

A woman reports that her young daughter is missing, but there seems to be no evidence that she ever existed.

Bunny Lake Is Missing

1965

The Captain's Table poster
6.0

A captain is promoted by his company from tramp steamers to their flagship passenger liner. Although he is a thoroughly competent sailor ready to take charge of such a ship, he is less prepared for the social duties his new position involves, not least the way he in which becomes the target for all the unattached women on board.

The Captain's Table

1959

The Importance of Being Earnest poster
7.2

Two young gentlemen living in 1890s England use the same pseudonym ('Ernest') on the sly, which is fine until they both fall in love with women using that name, which leads to a comedy of mistaken identities.

The Importance of Being Earnest

1952

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness poster
6.8

All her life, Englishwoman Gladys Aylward knew that China was where she belonged. Unqualified to be sent as a missionary, Gladys works as a domestic to earn to send herself to a poor, remote village. There, she eventually lives a full and happy life: running the inn, acting as 'foot inspector', advising the local Mandarin, and even winning the heart of mixed-race Captain Lin Nan. Gladys discovers her real destiny when the country is invaded by Japan and the Chinese children need her to save their lives.

The Inn of the Sixth Happiness

1958

Confessions of a Window Cleaner poster
5.0

Young Timmy starts as a window cleaner in the little company of his brother. Soon he learns that some female customers expect additional service. Young and curious as he is, he reluctantly accepts the juicy duty. However his heart belongs to Liz, who demands the highest commitment until she lets him go all the way.

Confessions of a Window Cleaner

1974

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

The Alphabet Murders poster
5.8

The Belgian detective Hercule Poirot investigates a series of murders in London in which the victims are killed according to their initials.

The Alphabet Murders

1965

Park Plaza 605 poster
4.7

Suave private investigator Norman Conquest intercepts a secret message and meets a beautiful but foreign blonde lady in room 605 of the Park Plaza hotel. But when Conquest wakes up in the room the next morning he is lying next to a dead body. With the mysterious blonde nowhere to be seen, Conquest soon becomes the police s number one suspect with Inspector Williams following his every move. In order to clear his name, Conquest enlists the help of Pixie Everard (Joy Shelton), but the going gets rough when he discovers that the murder is connected to a stash of stolen diamonds. As gun-happy gangs of communists and Nazi sympathizers turn up the heat, Conquest has to solve the murder whilst staying one step ahead of both the gangs and the police.

Park Plaza 605

1953

The Iron Petticoat poster
5.8

Captain Vinka Kovalenko defects from Russia, but not for political reasons. She defects because she feels discriminated against as a woman. Captain Chuck Lockwood gets the order to show her the bright side of capitalism, while she tries to convince him of the superiority of communism. Naturally, they fall in love, but there's still the KGB, which doesn't like the idea of having a defected Russian officer running around in London.

The Iron Petticoat

1956

Doctor in the House poster
6.5

The first of the seven "Doctor" films, based on Richard Gordon's novels and released between 1954 and 1970. Simon Sparrow is a newly arrived medical student at St Swithin's hospital in London. Falling in with three longer-serving hopefuls he is soon immersed in the wooing, imbibing and fast sports-car driving that constitute 1950s medical training. There is, however, always the looming and formidable figure of chief surgeon Sir Lancelot Spratt to remind them of their real purpose.

Doctor in the House

1954

Second Fiddle poster
6.3

Deborah and Charles, young executives at the thriving Pontifex Advertising Agency, are very much in love. Deborah is recognised by her employers as the most brilliant TV executive in the country, while Charles is regarded as 'thoroughly reliable'. But there is one hard-and-fast rule at the agency: the board of directors will not allow any married women on their staff; as soon as a girl marries, she must resign!

Second Fiddle

1957