Frederick Piper
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Frederick Piper | |
---|---|
![]() in Passport to Pimlico (1949) | |
Born | London, England | 23 September 1902
Died | 22 September 1979 Berkshire, England | (aged 76)
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1933 – 1971 |
Frederick Piper (23 September 1902 – 22 September 1979) was an English actor who appeared in over 80 films and many television productions in a career spanning over 40 years.[1] Never a leading player, Piper was usually cast in minor, sometimes uncredited, parts although he also appeared in some more substantial supporting roles. Piper never aspired to star-status, but became a recognisable face on the British screen through the sheer volume of films in which he appeared. His credits include a number of films which are considered classics of British cinema, among them five 1930s Alfred Hitchcock films; he also appeared in many Ealing Studios productions, including some of the celebrated Ealing Comedies.[2]
Film career
Born in London in 1902, Piper worked as a tea merchant before starting his acting career on the stage in the 1920s, playing in London productions and also touring as far afield as Canada. His first film appearance came in the 1933 production The Good Companions.[3][4]
An unassuming man with no trappings of ambition or conceit, Piper rapidly earned a reputation as a reliable, congenial presence on set and became a first choice for directors with smaller roles to cast, accumulating screen credits at the rate of up to six a year through to the 1960s. He appeared as an extra in Hitchcock's 1934 film The Man Who Knew Too Much (credited as "Policeman with Rifle"), and the following year was cast again by Hitchcock in the role of the milkman in the famous scene with Robert Donat in The 39 Steps. Piper was only on screen for seconds, but the iconic nature of the scene ultimately made this probably his most famous film appearance.[5] Later minor roles for Hitchcock were Sabotage (1936 – as the doomed bus conductor), Young and Innocent (1937) and Jamaica Inn (1939 – as Charles Laughton's agent).[6]
Piper's services were always in demand, and he is said to have once joked that he had cornered the market in unnamed police officers and barmen. From the late 1930s he became associated with Ealing Studios, appearing in dozens of their productions, from cheaply shot programmers through to the company's most prestigious films such as In Which We Serve (1942). Most of Piper's roles were fleeting and his name rarely appeared in promotional material, but there was an occasional more substantial part in films such as Nine Men (1943), The October Man (1947) and Hunted (1952). In 1947, Piper played in Hue and Cry, the film which became known as the first in the canon of classic Ealing Comedies; he later also appeared in Passport to Pimlico (1949) and The Lavender Hill Mob (1951).[7][8]
From the early 1960s film work began to dry up, but Piper continued to find work in television, a medium on which he had first appeared as early as 1938 in a production of J. B. Priestley's play Laburnum Grove for the fledgling BBC. His TV credits during the 1960s included popular series such as Danger Man, Dixon of Dock Green and cult favourite The Prisoner. Piper's last credit however was in a film, a minor role in the 1971 production Burke & Hare.[9]
Piper died in London on 22 September 1979, one day short of his 77th birthday.[10]
Filmography
- 1933: The Good Companions
- 1934: Red Ensign
- 1934: The Man Who Knew Too Much
- 1935: The 39 Steps
- 1935: The Guv'nor
- 1936: Fame
- 1936: Everything Is Thunder
- 1936: Crown v. Stevens
- 1936: Where There's a Will
- 1936: Sabotage
- 1936: Jack of All Trades
- 1937: Feather Your Nest
- 1937: Non-Stop New York
- 1937: Oh, Mr Porter!
- 1937: Young and Innocent
- 1938: Climbing High
- 1938: They Drive by Night
- 1939: Jamaica Inn
- 1939: The Four Just Men
- 1940: The Big Blockade
- 1941: East of Piccadilly
- 1941: 49th Parallel
- 1942: In Which We Serve
- 1943: Nine Men
- 1943: The Bells Go Down
- 1943: San Demetrio London
- 1944: It Happened One Sunday
- 1944: Fiddlers Three
- 1944: Champagne Charlie
- 1945: Johnny Frenchman
- 1945: Pink String and Sealing Wax
- 1947: Hue and Cry
- 1947: The Loves of Joanna Godden
- 1947: Master of Bankdam
- 1947: The October Man
- 1947: It Always Rains on Sunday
- 1948: Escape
- 1948: Look Before You Love
- 1948: My Brother's Keeper
- 1949: The History of Mr. Polly
- 1949: Vote for Huggett
- 1949: Passport to Pimlico
- 1949: It's Not Cricket
- 1949: Don't Ever Leave Me
- 1950: The Blue Lamp
- 1951: The Lavender Hill Mob
- 1952: Home at Seven
- 1952: Hunted
- 1952: Brandy for the Parson
- 1952: Escape Route
- 1953: Cosh Boy
- 1954: Conflict of Wings
- 1954: The Rainbow Jacket
- 1954: Lease of Life
- 1955: Doctor at Sea
- 1956: The Man in the Road
- 1957: The Birthday Present
- 1957: The Passionate Stranger
- 1957: Suspended Alibi
- 1957: Doctor at Large
- 1957: Second Fiddle
- 1957: Barnacle Bill
- 1958: Dunkirk
- 1959: Violent Moment
- 1959: A Touch of Larceny
- 1960: The Day They Robbed the Bank of England
- 1960: Dead Lucky
- 1960: Evidence in Concrete
- 1961: Return of a Stranger
- 1961: Very Important Person
- 1961: The Monster of Highgate Ponds
- 1961: What a Carve Up!
- 1961: The Frightened City
- 1962: The Piper's Tune
- 1962: Only Two Can Play
- 1964: Becket
- 1964: One Way Pendulum
- 1965: Catacombs
- 1965: He Who Rides a Tiger
- 1971: Burke & Hare
External links
- Frederick Piper filmography at the Internet Movie Database
- Frederick Piper page at Alfred Hitchcock Wiki
References
- ^ "Frederick Piper". BFI.
- ^ "Frederick Piper".
- ^ "Overview for Frederick Piper". Turner Classic Movies.
- ^ "Frederick Piper". TV Guide.
- ^ "Backstory".
- ^ Per-Erik Skramstad. "Jamaica Inn".
- ^ "Ealing Studios".
- ^ Ian T. "Forgotten Actors".
- ^ "Frederick Piper".
- ^ "Frederick Piper (1902 - 1979) - Find A Grave Memorial".