death_date death_place birth_place name birth_date yearsactive image article_title birth_name occupation
17 october 1991 belfast , northern ireland belfast , ireland j.g. devlin 8 october 1907 1955 -- 91 actor_j . g. _ devlin.jpg j. g. devlin
 james gerard devlin actor
j. g. devlin

james gerard devlin -lrb- 8 october 1907 -- 17 october 1991 -rrb- was a northern irish actor who made his stage debut in 1931 , and had long association with the ulster group theatre .
in a career spanning nearly sixty years , he played parts in tv productions such as `` z-cars '' , `` dad 's army '' , `` the new avengers '' and `` bread '' .
he also guest starred , alongside leonard rossiter , in an episode of `` steptoe and son '' , `` the desperate hours '' .
the writers of `` steptoe and son '' - ray galton and alan simpson - have since revealed that devlin was second choice to play the part of albert steptoe in the series , behind wilfrid brambell .
he also appeared as father dooley , a catholic priest , in several episodes of carla lane 's `` bread '' , probably his last television appearance .
his was vivian stanshall 's personal choice for the role of old scrotum , the wrinkled retainer in the charisma films version of `` sir henry at rawlinson end '' , released in 1980 .
