# Bill Thomas (actor)

Bill Thomas (born 1952) is an English stage and screen actor, one of the most prolific actors of his generation. In forty six years as a professional actor Bill played four hundred and sixty three characters but never a doctor, policeman or soldier, until his last film Loving Vincent in which he was Dr Mazery. The film was nominated for an Oscar.
His body of work encompassed 18 feature films, 31 short films, 130 Television productions, 74 theatre productions, 166 adverts.
From 2010 he struggled to remember lines and gave up acting in 2016 to become the doorman at Selfridges, the famous department store in London's Oxford Street, effectively his West End debut, and the most glamorous job he ever had.
He has written a novel called "Ordinary - the novel that Tommy Warren wrote" about a very elderly doorman who is persuaded by a colleague to write a novel about his experiences during WWII. Finding himself short of material he starts to make things up (or does he?).

## Career

He was Tom Henshall, long suffering father of the hairdressing sisters in four seasons of the BBC series Cutting It and Charles Quance, the tailor who has a bumpy romance with one of the seamstresses in three seasons of the classic BBC serial The House of Eliott.
He took the lead role of Colin in the feature film Weak at Denise, about a woman who is coaxed to seduce him by her immoral boyfriend to get his money but falls in love (a happy ending) and The Sky in Bloom in which he was Branick Hammond, who is dying from cancer (but that's the least of his problems) and Syrup (which was nominated for an Academy Award for best short life action feature in 1994). A bald man gets a wig and it changes his life.
He was featured artist in 166 TV commercials all over the world.
A return to the stage saw him playing Ironside, in An English Tragedy, a new play by Oscar-winning playwright Ronald Harwood. A generation of young adults know him as Mr Tucknott the pompous and terrifying bank manager in the classic Bodger and Badger series on BBCTV.
His previous stage work includes the lead role in Dragon in the Olivier Theatre as a member of the Royal National Theatre, a remarkable and innovative production by the accomplished director Ulz, after working together at Nottingham Playhouse. He was Arturo UI in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, directed by David Gilmore at the Nuffield Theatre, Southampton and went on to lead roles in repertory for much his early career (including six plays by Shakespeare).
He has a long connection with the Theatre Royal, Stratford, E15, where with Jeff Teare and Patrick Prior he pioneered a series of political dramas, developing and performing leading roles in satirical attacks on Margaret Thatchers government. The same team produced pantomimes for many years during the 1980s and 90's which set a standard in British Theatre for integrity and quality.
TV work has included spells in Emmerdale and six episodes of Doctors, all different people, three different people inHeartbeat, five different people in The Bill, four different people in Midsomer Murders.
He has also makes pictures and has exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery in East London, where he has lived for most of his life.

## Selected film and television work

(click title to watch clip)
| Year | Production | Type | Part |
| 2016 | Loving Vincent | Animated feature film | Dr Mazery (who claimed van Gogh was murdered). Oscar nominated as best animated feature. |
| 2011 | Outnumbered | BBCTV series | Mr Blain, Ben's teacher at parent's evening |
| 2011 | Pusher (2012 film) | Feature Film | Jack (who owes money to some bad, bad people. Ends up dead) |
| 2010 | 'The Sky in Bloom | Feature film | Branick Hammond – traffics women and runs brothels. Ends up dead. |
| 2010 | Merlin | BBCTV series | Cylferth – sword maker and magician. Ends up dead. |
| 2010 | 'Doctors | BBCTV series | Hairy Potter (wigmaker won't take his medicine) |
| 2010 | ''Prices to Pay | Short film | The Norfolk Farmer who shot a burglar |
| 2009 | 'The Canoe Man | TV drama | Sampson – surely campsite manager |
| 2009 | The Bill | BBC TV series | Charles Greene (nice neighbour helps victim) |
| 2009 | Heartbeat | BBCTV series | Station Master attacked by dog, pigeons and a fire extinguisher |
| 2009 | Emmerdale | ITV series | Ernest Amplethorpe – impassioned lover thumps the Bishop |
| 2008 | Wire in the Blood | ITV series | John Rowland – paranoiac neighbour of main man |
| 2008 | 'The Antiques Rogueshow | TV drama | Fitch – the neighbour who blabs to the tabloids |
| 2008 | 'Trial and Retribution | ITV series | Norman Gladstone, custodian of criminal evidence warehouse |
| 2007 | Messiah | BBCTV series | Harry Fullerton – flower seller, bereaved husband and father |
| 2007 | Midsomer Murders | ITV series | Derek Wildacre – newly widowed and grieving |
| 2006 | New Tricks | BBCTV series | Evans – imprisoned for 20 years for a crime he did not commit, released after a retired policeman takes up his case. |
| 2006 | Dalziel and Pascoe | TV Series | Phil Cooper a man with a water diviner |
| 2006 | City Lights | BBCTV series | Mr Youd – employs his daughters boyfriend and pal to dig a pond, lives to regret it. |
| 2003-6 | Cutting It | BBCTV series | Tom Henshall – 20+ episodes as dad to three girls who set up a hairdressers. Has affair with pornstar etc. Gross wife. |
| 2006 | Foyles War | BBCTV series | Willis the Air raid warden – finds a body with a knife in it in debris of bombed house |
| 1998 | Bodger and Badger | BBCTV series | Mr Woberts the watcatcher |
| 1993 | Syrup | Short film | George (lead) bald man gets a wig. Nominated for an Oscar. |

## Appearances in theatre include

* Ironside, the prison warder in a new play by Oscar-winning writer Ronald Harwood, An English Tragedy – Watford Palace Theatre.
* Burgomeister (lead), in Dragon at the Olivier – Royal National Theatre
* Arturo Ui in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui – Nuffield Theatre, Southampton