Donald Sinden

Sir Donald Sinden
Production poster for An Evening with... Sir Donald Sinden
Born	Donald Alfred Sinden 9 October 1923 (1923-10-09) Plymouth, Devon, England
Residence	Kent, England
Occupation	Actor
Spouse	Diana Mahony (m. 1948– 2004, her death)
Children	Jeremy Sinden (deceased) Marc Sinden
Awards	KB; CBE; D.Litt; D.Arts; Evening Standard Award Best Actor Society of London Theatre Award Best Actor Drama Desk Special Award Tony Award Best Actor nomination etc.

Sir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE D.Litt D.Arts (born 9 October 1923) is an English actor of theatre, film, television and radio and an author.

Early career

He trained as an actor at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and made his first stage appearance at the Brighton Little Theatre (of which he later became President) in January 1941, playing Dudley in George and Margaret. He broke into professional acting after appearing with the Mobile Entertainments Southern Area company in modern comedies for the armed forces during the Second World War.

Rank Organisation

In 1953 he was contracted for seven years to the Rank Organisation at Pinewood Studios and subsequently starred in many outstanding British films of the 1950s including The Cruel Sea, Mogambo, Doctor in the House, Above Us The Waves, Doctor at Large, The Siege of Sidney Street, Twice Round the Daffodils and with a very young Adam Faith in Mix Me a Person.

Theatre

Theatre being his first 'love', he is a noted farceur and has won Best Actor awards for his appearances in Ray Cooney farces Not Now Darling; Two Into One and Out of Order. Other memorable productions have been leading performances in There's a Girl in My Soup; An Enemy Of The People; Major Barbara; The Scarlet Pimpernel; That Good Night and Quartet.

He was also a leading figure in the fight to launch the Theatre Museum in London's Covent Garden in the 1980s.

In 2007, Sinden embarked on a UK and European theatre tour to talk about his life, work and anecdotes in An Evening with... Sir Donald Sinden. Produced by his son Marc this included, on 8 November 2007 (as part of Marc's British Theatre Season in Monaco) a performance in front of HSH Prince Albert of Monaco at the Théâtre Princesse Grace, Monte Carlo.

Royal Shakespeare Company

Sinden has been an Associate Artiste of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) since the early 1960s. Among his many notable stage appearances for the RSC are in The Wars of the Roses (as the Duke of York) opposite Dame Peggy Ashcroft (as Queen Margaret). For the 1976 Stratford season and then at the Aldwych in 1977, he played Benedick opposite Dame Judi Dench’s Beatrice in the highly-acclaimed 'British Raj' revival of Much Ado About Nothing. He also won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actor that year for his performance in the title role of King Lear. Other memorable RSC performances were Twelfth Night, The Relapse and London Assurance for which he received the 1975 Drama Desk Special Award.

Theatre Documentary

Charles Spencer, the drama critic for the Daily Telegraph, reported that Sinden is currently filming a documentary series called Great West End Theatres, which will describe the history and stories associated with each of the 40 London theatres. Produced and directed by his son Marc Sinden, it is to be released as a 40-part DVD series.

In their review of the series, the British Theatre Guide said "Sir Donald's gorgeous plummy tones are a joy to listen to whatever he is saying but when he is extolling the virtues of one of his own favourite theatres, the pleasure is heightened. At his first entrance, he announces that he is "tingling with excitement" which is just what one wants from a tour guide. Soon enough, so are viewers."

Radio

His distinctive voice was heard frequently on radio, including as Sir Charles Baskerville in a Radio 4 adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story The Hound of the Baskervilles. He also starred in multiple adaptations of John Dickson Carr's Dr. Gideon Fell mysteries, including The House on Gallows Lane, The Hollow Man and Black Spectacles, To Wake the Dead, The Blind Barber and The Mad Hatter Mystery.

Television

He achieved an early wider fame with the non-theatregoing public in 1963 through the Associated Rediffusion series Our Man at St Mark's followed by Our Man from St Mark's and then again in 1975 through the London Weekend Television situation comedy Two's Company, in which he played an English butler, Robert, to Elaine Stritch's American character, Dorothy. Much of the humour derived from the culture clashes between Robert's very stiff-upper-lip Britishness and Dorothy's devil-may-care New York view on life. Two's Company was exceptionally well-received in Britain, despite being broadcast in the so-called 'graveyard slot' of Sunday night at 10:30pm. Stritch and Sinden also sang the theme tune to the programme. The format was sold to NBC and remade in the US as The Two of Us starring Peter Cook, however the remake was a failure and only lasted one season. The original British version is now available on DVD in both the UK and the US.

From 1981 he was also to star as Simon Peel in the Thames TV situation comedy Never the Twain, in which he played a snooty antiques dealer who had to live next door to Oliver Smallbridge (played by Windsor Davies), who also ran an antique shop. The characters hated each other and were horrified when they discovered that their son and daughter were to be married - thus meaning they were related. Despite a lack of critical acclaim, the series proved to be popular with audiences and ran for 11 years. One episode had Sinden being literally picked up by two police officers played by his own actor sons.

Other featured television roles included guest-starring in the cult series The Prisoner. From 2001-07 he played the part of senior judge (and father-in-law of the title character) Sir Joseph Channing in Judge John Deed and is the voice of Totally Viral.

Sinden was spoofed on Spitting Image, the British satirical television programme in which famous people were lampooned by caricatured latex puppets. For example, when his puppet, sitting in a restaurant, summons a waiter and asks "Do you serve a ham salad?" the waiter replies "Yes, we serve salad to anyone". His puppet was also frequently shown fawning to the Queen and unsuccessfully requesting a Knighthood from her, an honour he did in fact receive in 1997.

Books

Sinden has written two autobiographical volumes, A Touch of the Memoirs (1982) and Laughter in the Second Act (1985), as well as a collection of "epitaphs and final utterances," The Last Word (1994).

He is believed to be the last person alive to have known Oscar Wilde's lover Lord Alfred "Bosie" Douglas and is writing his memories of their friendship.

Present

In 2002, the purpose-built theatre at Homewood School, Ashford Road, Tenterden, Kent was named the Sinden Theatre.

On 12 July 2005, he was awarded the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Leicester and on 20 July 2011, the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Arts by the University of Canterbury.

Sinden is a patron of ME Solutions, a charity dedicated to finding a breakthrough in the treatment of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis through targeted and comprehensive biomedical research, focusing on the physical causes of M.E.

Sir Donald is Honorary President of the Garden Suburb Theatre, an amateur theatre group based in the Hampstead Garden Suburb where he was resident for many years.

Personal life

Sinden was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 9 October 1923. The son of Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes (née Fuller), he, his elder sister Joy and his brother Leon (born 1927, also an actor), grew up in the Sussex village of Ditchling, where their home "The Limes" doubled as the local chemist shop.

He was married to actress Diana Mahony from 1948 until her death, aged 77, in 2004. The couple had two sons: actor Jeremy Sinden (born 1950), who died of lung cancer in 1996 and the West End theatre producer, Marc Sinden (born 1954). He has four grandchildren: Kezia (born 1979), Hal (born 1980), Harriet (born 1984) and Bridie (born 1990).

In October 2010, his grandson Hal and two of his granddaughters (Kezia and Harriet) each announced their engagements and forthcoming marriages.

He lives on the Isle of Oxney, near Tenterden, Kent.

Filmography

• Portrait from Life (1948)
• The Cruel Sea (1953)
• Mogambo (1953)
• A Day to Remember (1953)
• You Know What Sailors Are (1954)
• Doctor in the House (1954)
• The Beachcomber (1954)
• Mad About Men (1954)
• Simba (1955)
• Above Us the Waves (1955)
• Josephine and Men (1955)
• An Alligator Named Daisy (1955)
• The Black Tent (1956)
• Eyewitness (1956)
• Tiger in the Smoke (1956)
• Rockets Galore! (1957)
• Doctor at Large (1957)
• The Captain's Table (1959)
• Operation Bullshine (1959)
• Your Money or Your Wife (1960)
• The Siege of Sidney Street (1960)
• Twice Round the Daffodils (1962)
• Mix Me a Person (1962)
• Decline and Fall... of a Birdwatcher (1968)
• Villain (1971)
• Rentadick (1972)
• The National Health (1973)
• The Day of the Jackal (1973)
• Father Dear Father (1973)
• The Island at the Top of the World (1974)
• That Lucky Touch (1975)
• The Children (1990)
• Alice in Wonderland (1999) (Voice of the Griffon)
• The Accidental Detective (2003)

External links

• Donald Sinden at the Internet Broadway Database
• Donald Sinden at the Internet Movie Database
• Donald Sinden at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
• Sinden Theatre, Tenterden