Frank Thornton - IMDb IMDb Actor | Soundtrack Frank Thornton was born on January 15, 1921 in Dulwich, London, England as Frank Thornton Ball. He was an actor, known for Last of the Summer Wine (1973), Are You Being Served? (1972) and Gosford Park (2001). He was married to Beryl Jane Margaret Evans. He died on March 16, 2013 in Barnes, London. See full bio » Born: a list of 23 people created 25 Dec 2012 a list of 1295 people created 07 Sep 2014 a list of 31 people created 9 months ago a list of 1682 people created 5 months ago a list of 1955 people created 4 months ago Do you have a demo reel? Add it to your IMDbPage How much of Frank Thornton's work have you seen? User Polls 2004 Holby City (TV Series) Douglas Archer - We'll Meet Again (2004) ...

Douglas Archer 2003 Doctors (TV Series) 1995 The Upper Hand (TV Series) Reverend Hale 1990 Mr. Majeika (TV Series) Headmaster 1987 T-Bag Bounces Back (TV Series) Count Boris 1987 The Sooty Show (TV Series) Dr. Hugh 1982 The Gentle Touch (TV Series) Leo 1979 Word for Word (TV Series) Jogran 1971-1977 The Goodies (TV Series) Master of Ceremonies / Waiter 1976 The New Avengers (TV Series) Roland 1975 Shades of Greene (TV Series) Rev. Simon Milan - When Greek Meets Greek (1975) ... Rev. Simon Milan 1975 Whodunnit? (TV Series) 1974 Holiday with Strings (TV Movie) Travel Agent 1974 Crown Court (TV Series) Professor McIver 1962-1973 Steptoe and Son (TV Series) Travel Agency Clerk / The Frenchman / Butler / ...

1961-1973 Armchair Theatre (TV Series) Arthur - groom's father / Station Sergeant / Frank / ... 1972 Love Thy Neighbour (TV Series) The Barman 1971 Bachelor Father (TV Series) Vicar 1969 Mr. Digby Darling (TV Series) Mr.

Skidmore 1969 Thicker Than Water (TV Series) Ted Rumbold 1969 The Champions (TV Series) Clerk 1968 Inside George Webley (TV Series) Maitre d' 1967 Harry Worth (TV Series) Inspector Wallace 1966 Coronation Street (TV Series) Danny Roach 1966 The Liars (TV Series) Aldogrando 1965 Emergency-Ward 10 (TV Series) John Ross 1964 The Villains (TV Series) Fowler 1963 The Sentimental Agent (TV Series) Tailor 1963 Benny Hill (TV Series) John Kenwood / Frindyke / Korsikoff 1962 The Odd Man (TV Series) Second Under Secretary - The House of D'Arblay (1962) ... Second Under Secretary 1962 Suspense (TV Series) 1961 Citizen James (TV Series) Ministry Agent 1961 The Rag Trade (TV Series) Mr.

Davis 1961 The Avengers (TV Series) Sir William Bonner - Death on the Slipway (1961) ... Sir William Bonner 1961 Hancock (TV Series) 1961 Danger Man (TV Series) Pepe / Police Captain 1959 William Tell (TV Series) Heinburgher / Tax Collector 1956 Call Back Yesterday (TV Movie) Pianist 1952 My Dear Petitioner (TV Movie) Miguel Esteban d'Alvarez 1951 The Empty Street (TV Short) 1st Ambulance man 1950 BBC Sunday-Night Theatre (TV Series) Sailor - The Pop Star (1985) ... (performer: "Chanson D'Amour" (1958) - uncredited) - The Clock (1974) ... (performer: "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow" - uncredited) - Camping In (1973) ... (performer: "Keep The Home Fires Burning") Hide - Grounds for Divorce (1985) ...

(in memory of: 1921 - 2013) Hide 2010 The Unforgettable Mollie Sugden (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2009 Mollie Sugden: A Tribute (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2009 Beyond a Joke (TV Series documentary) Himself 2008 50 Greatest Comedy Catchphrases (TV Movie documentary) Himself 2007 Children in Need (TV Series) Himself / Restaurant Manager 2007 Richard & Judy (TV Series) Himself 2007 This Morning (TV Series) Himself 2004 Britain's Best Sitcom (TV Series) Himself 2003 Comedy Connections (TV Series documentary) Himself 2003 The Sitcom Story (TV Series documentary) Himself 1975-2002 This Is Your Life (TV Series documentary) Himself 2002 The Making of Gosford Park (TV Short documentary) Himself (uncredited) 1999-2001 Funny Turns (TV Series documentary) Himself 1984-2001 Blankety Blank (TV Series) Himself 1998 What

's a Carry On?

(TV Movie documentary) Himself, at Re-Union (uncredited) 1997 Auntie's TV Favourites (TV Series) Himself 1993-1995 Telly Addicts (TV Series) Himself 1994 Noel's House Party (TV Series) Himself 1976 Seaside Special (TV Series) Himself 1974 Sez Les (TV Series) Himself / Various Characters 1950-1951 The Services Show (TV Series) Himself - Presenter Personal Details Other Works: He acted in Sir George Bernard Shaw 's play, "The Doctor's Dilemma", at the Mermaid Theatre in London, England with Simon Callow CBE, Derek Godfrey , Tony Jay , Sir Nigel Hawthorne CBE, James Villiers , James Cairncross , Lynn Farleigh and Kenneth Cranham in the cast. Robert Chetwyn was the director. See more » Publicity Listings: 1 Article | 1 Magazine Cover Photo | See more » Alternate Names: Frank Thornton - TV.com Frank Thornton 1/15/1921, Dulwich, London, England, United Kingdom Died No biography is available for Frank Thornton.

Add a Biography Credits S 29: Ep 11 Get Out Of That, Then 8/31/08 S 29: Ep 10 It's Never Ten Years 8/24/08 S 29: Ep 8 Of Passion and Pizza 8/17/08 S 28: Ep 10 Sinclair And The Wormley Witches 9/23/07 S 2: Ep 6 Day Fourteen: Sunday 2/8/93 S 2: Ep 5 Day Thirteen: Saturday 2/1/93 S 2: Ep 4 Day Eleven: Thursday 1/25/93 S 2: Ep 3 Day Ten: Wednesday 1/18/93 S 2: Ep 2 Day Nine: Tuesday 1/11/93 S 10: Ep 7 The Pop Star 4/1/85 S 10: Ep 6 Friends and Neighbours 3/25/85 S 10: Ep 4 Gambling Fever 3/11/85 S 10: Ep 2 Grounds for Div

orce 2/25/85 S 10: Ep 1 Goodbye Mrs.

Slocombe 2/18/85 S 10: Ep 5 The Night Club 3/18/85 S 10: Ep 3 The Hold Up 3/4/85 S 8: Ep 8 Roots?

12/24/81 S 7: Ep 8 The Punch and Judy Affair 12/26/79 S 8: Ep 7 Christmas Special 1973 12/24/73 S 4: Ep 7 Pilgrim's Progress 11/15/65 S 3: Ep 4 Steptoe a La Cart 1/28/64 S 2: Ep 4 Sixty-Five Today 1/24/63 S 1: Ep 4 The Economist 6/28/62 S 4: Ep 3 Mollie Sugden 9/8/10 S 25: Ep 34 Wendy Richard, MBE 2/26/09 S 6: Ep 36 We'll Meet Again 6/8/04 S 1: Ep 3 Are You Being Served?

6/23/03 S 5: Ep 94 A Soldier's Lot 2/24/03 S 42: Ep 12 Bill Oddie 1/31/02 S 39: Ep 7 Frank Thornton 10/19/98 S 38: Ep 17 Trevor Bannister 12/22/97 S 1: Ep 5 Kathy Staff - Wrinkles and All 4/1/01 S 1: Ep 1 John Inman 12/5/99 S 1: Ep 1 Bill Owen - A Tribute 1/2/00 S 2: Ep 14 Frank Thornton and Thora Hird 7/31/98 S 11: Ep 17 Series 11, Episode 17 12/28/95 S 6: Ep 14 The Wedding 4/8/95 S 4: Ep 7 1993 [2 Parts] 11/26/93 S 2: Ep 1 1980 [6 Parts] 

11/23/80 S 9: Ep 9 Series 9, Episode 9 11/1/93 S 1: Ep 9 The Bard 2/28/89 S 1: Ep 3 Ivan The Horrible 2/6/87 S 4: Ep 1 Right of Entry 10/22/82 S 1: Ep 13 The Taming of the Shrew 10/23/80 S 1: Ep 2 House of Cards 10/29/76 S 3: Ep 5 Nothing to Declare 8/11/75 S 1: Ep 11 Dream 11/23/72 S 1: Ep 6 Refused A Drink 5/18/72 S 1: Ep 9 Robbie the Robot 11/7/70 S 6: Ep 3 Camelot On A Clear Day 6/1/70 S 9: Ep 4 Who's Your Friend 1/15/70 S 1: Ep 23 The Night People 3/5/6

9 S 1: Ep 10 The Bequest 8/13/65 S 2: Ep 7 The Vanishing Man 1/11/63 S 2: Ep 15 A Hood From Canada 3/31/62 S 2: Ep 1 Our Man in Moscow 3/1/62 S 1: Ep 10 The Channel Swimmer 2/16/62 S 1: Ep 3 Early Start 10/20/61 S 1: Ep 17 Death on the Slipway 6/24/61 S 7: Ep 5 The Blood Donor 6/23/61 S 1: Ep 34 Hired Assassin 4/30/61 S 1: Ep 18 Find and Return 1/8/61 S 1: Ep 31 The Boy Without a Country 4/9/60 S 1: Ep 23 Money to Burn 2/13/60 S 1: Ep 22 The Man in the Road 2/6/60 S 1: Ep

 19 The Survivor 1/16/60 S 1: Ep 18 Marie 1/9/60 S 1: Ep 15 National Treasure 12/19/59 S 1: Ep 6 The Beatniques 10/17/59 S 1: Ep 5 The Crying Jester 10/10/59 S 1: Ep 23 The Surgeon 2/16/59 S 1: Ep 18 Landslide 1/12/59 S 4: Ep 11 The New Skipper 11/23/57 S 3: Ep 8 An Audience With Bruce Forsyth 2/1/97 S 5: Ep 5 Episode 5-5 1/11/88 S 3: Ep 2 Episode 3-2 4/20/85 Become a contributor Important: You must only upload images which you have created yourself or that you are expressly authorised or licensed to upload.

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Photo: ALLSTAR/ANGLO 6:17PM GMT 18 Mar 2013 As a floorwalker in the faded department store Grace Brothers, Thornton’s Capt Peacock patrolled his beat with a quiet and courteous authority. As he surveyed his domain of menswear and ladies’ fashions with a sometimes hard-pressed hauteur, he represented a beacon of fastidiousness in a vanishing, old-fashioned world. The imperious Peacock countered with dignity and moral distance the whims and wheezes of his underlings, notably the mincing Mr (“I’m free!”) Humphries (John Inman), the minxy Miss Brahms (Wendy Richard) and the purple-rinsed Mrs Slocombe (Molly Sugden) endlessly fretting about her “pussy”. In the face of insolence from insubordinates, Thornton could summon up a gesture or a look — shooting his cuffs, holding his head more erectly, casting a withering glare or just lifting a censorious eyebrow — to betoken multiple nuances of well-mannered disapproval.

If, under the pressure of some departmental crisis, Peacock allowed his self-control to yield to temper, Thornton would simply look to the heavens as if hoping for divine intervention, jerk his head in disgust, and bestow on the disintegrating scene a simmering threat of unleashed wrath . Thornton’s was a lonely kind of comedy, proceeding from character rather than situation, and thriving on restraint — another long-running television role was as the retired police officer Herbert “Truly” Truelove in Last of the Summer Wine (1997-2010). Yet neither this, nor his portrayal of Capt Peacock — a figure he revived on television in the 1990s in the less successful series, Grace and Favour, a rural spin-off with the same ensemble cast — suggested that Thornton was one of the stage’s most soundly-trained Shakespeareans with a career spanning more than half a century. He was born Frank Thornton Ball at Dulwich on January 15 1921. Educated at Alleyn’s School, he worked as an insurance clerk before his love of theatre put paid to any notions of an orthodox career.

Related Articles Sir Donald Sinden 12 Sep 2014 In 1940, on leaving Rada, he made his professional debut, aged 19, in Ireland at the Confraternity Hall at Thurles in Co Tipperary. He played the hearty, florid Brian Curtis in Terence Rattigan’s French Without Tears before touring plays round small towns and village halls in the Irish “fit-up” tradition. A year later, back in London, he joined Donald Wolfit’s Shakespearean company during its first West End wartime season, playing Fenton and Bardolph in The Merry Wives of Windsor (Strand) and touring as Dewhurst in The Scarlet Pimpernel. As London endured the Blitz, his West End roles included Laertes in Hamlet and Lysander in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Strand).

After his Mosca to Wolfit’s Volpone had been well received at the St James’s, John Gielgud engaged him for two small parts in his revival of Macbeth (Piccadilly, 1942); and he took over as Cpl Jones in the West End run of Rattigan’s Flare Path (Apollo, also 1942). Enlisting in the RAF that November, Thornton trained as a navigator in Canada, returning in January 1945 to complete his operational training; but the war finished before he could join a squadron. In the summer of 1945 he joined the RAF Entertainment Unit and was discharged in 1947 in the rank of flying officer and joined Southsea rep. He toured as Franzel in Ivor Novello’s romantic musical The Dancing Years in 1947-48, and as the hapless Gregory Throstle in Vernon Sylvaine’s farce One Wild Oat . After two short-lived West End musicals, he appeared as the Caliph in Hassan at the Dublin Theatre Festival and as Ludovico Nota in Pirandello’s Naked (Oxford Playhouse).

Back in London in the mid-1960s, he appeared in Charles Wood’s Meals on Wheels (Royal Court); toured in The Little Hut; played a QC in the Savoy whodunnit Alibi for a Judge; and was in the musical The Young Visitors (Piccadilly, 1968) . In 1970 he gave a typically solid cameo as Councillor Parker in JB Priestley’s Yorkshire comedy When We Are Married (Strand). For two seasons running he was perfectly cast as the long-faced Eeyore in AA Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh (Phoenix, 1971 and 1972). In between his television work on Are You Being Served? he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company as Sir Andrew Aguecheek in Twelfth Night and as Duncan to Nicol Williamson’s Macbeth, first at Stratford-on-Avon and then the Aldwych (1974-75). Thornton re-created the role of Capt Peacock on stage in Are You Being Served? for the Blackpool summer season of 1976.

The film of the same name, released a year later, in which the staff of Grace Brothers decamped on holiday to the Costa Plonka, was every bit as dire as the plot. After touring as Sir Justin Holbrook (opposite Donald Sinden) in the farce Shut Your Eyes and Think of England, Thornton continued in the role for a run at the Apollo, and in 1979 appeared in Alan Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce at Windsor and in Tom Stoppard’s Jumpers at Leatherhead. In 1980 he turned to the French avant-garde in Ionesco’s The Chairs (Royal Exchange, Manchester) before an Australian tour of Alan Bennett’s Habeas Corpus, and played Malvolio in Twelfth Night at Newbury. One of his longest runs was as Sir John Tremayne in Me and My Girl, first at Leicester, then in London at the Adelphi (1984-86). Thornton’s other television appearances included the comedy series It’s A Square World, The World of Beachcomber and HMS Paradise.

He made more than 50 films, among them Crooks and Coronets (1968); Spike Milligan’s The Bed-Sitting Room (1969); No Sex Please We’re British (1973); The Three Musketeers (1973); Steptoe and Son (1974); The Bawdy Adventures of Tom Jones (1975); and Gosford Park (2001). On television he appeared in The Taming of the Shrew (1981), Great Expectations (1991), The Old Curiosity Shop (1995) and as the clerk of the court in All Rise For Julian Clary (1996). His interests included music, photography and wildlife conservation. Frank Thornton married, in 1945, the actress Beryl Evans, who survives him with their daughter. Frank Thornton, born January 15 1921, died March 16 2013 Frank Thornton obituary | Television & radio | The Guardian Comedy Frank Thornton obituary Actor best known as the haughty department store supervisor Captain Peacock in the TV comedy Are You Being Served?

Frank Thornton (left) and John Inman in the 1977 film version of Are You Being Served? Photograph: Anglo/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar Monday 18 March 2013 08.54 EDT First published on Monday 18 March 2013 08.54 EDT Share on Messenger Close The actor Frank Thornton, who has died aged 92, had a flair for comedy derived from the subtle craftsmanship of classical stage work. However, he will be best remembered for his longstanding characters in two popular BBC television comedy series – the sniffily priggish Captain Peacock in Are You Being Served? and the pompous retired policeman Herbert "Truly" Truelove, in Roy Clarke's Last of the Summer Wine.

Robertson Hare, the great Whitehall farceur, told him: "You'll never do any good until you're 40." And, said Thornton, "he was quite right." In the event, he was 51 when David Croft , producer of another long-running British staple, Dad's Army, remembered the tall, long-faced actor from another engagement and decided to cast him as the dapper floor-walker in charge of shop assistants played by Mollie Sugden , Wendy Richard , Trevor Bannister and John Inman in the Grace Brothers department store of Are You Being Served? (1973‑85). Thornton's latter-day Malvolio, all pinstripes and impassive disdain, proved a perfect antithesis to the general air of jobsworthy incompetence and smutty innuendo. Captain Peacock was ideal casting for Thornton, who went on to appear in all 10 series. For when it came to a sense of the punctilious, the right way to do things, Thornton was your man. In later life, he came to lament his own typecasting, feeling it had limited his chance to play more heavyweight roles.

But his deadpan manner and ability to play the straight man gave him a career that extended for more than seven decades from a debut in 1940. Pinterest It was Thornton's understated but exquisite sense of timing that marked him out and gave him his durability, something that the writer-director Ray Cooney put down to his early years in weekly repertory, where over a period of three years "you'd get through 150 plays. It steeped you in character work." He recalled Thornton's ability to hold his ground in the most trying circumstances, citing an instance in the 1993 run of his West End farce It Runs in the Family. With the rest of the cast "corpsing" around him, Thornton, solid as a rock, and the foil for the surrounding mayhem, resisted by a desperate working of his eyebrows before finally succumbing "with tears pouring down his face". He was, says Cooney, the epitome of professionalism. Born Frank Thornton Ball in Dulwich, south-east London, he was educated at Alleyn's school.

He knew he wanted to be an actor from about the age of five, but first became an insurance clerk, taking drama classes at night at the London School of Dramatic Art. As a child, he described himself as "a bit of a loner, not one of the lads. I think I was probably a bit of a prig because I seem to have been stuck with this supercilious persona for as long as I can remember." From his first professional appearance, in Terence Rattigan's French Without Tears in Co Tipperary, he swiftly graduated to companies led by the actor-managers Donald Wolfit – where he met his future wife, Beryl Evans – and John Gielgud . After reaching the West End and appearing in the first production of Rattigan's Flare Path in 1942, Thornton then spent four years in the real RAF. After demob, he divided his time between repertory and the West End before his television comedy career took off in 1960 with Michael Bentine's frenetic It's a Square World.

Regular appearances followed alongside such comic greats as Tony Hancock (including the celebrated Hancock's Half Hour episode, The Blood Donor), Benny Hill, Eric Sykes , Ronnie Corbett and even Kenny Everett, on whose show he memorably appeared attired as a punk rocker. But he also continued to work in the theatre. His air of lugubriousness served him well as a "grey-faced, bug-eyed" Eeyore (as one review put it), in an adaptation of Winnie the Pooh at the Phoenix theatre, London, in the early 1970s. In 1980, he and Gwen Nelson were the old couple in Eugène Ionesco's absurdist drama The Chairs for the Royal Exchange, Manchester, and played Gremio in Jonathan Miller's TV version of The Taming of the Shrew.

Throughout the 1980s and 90s, he could be seen in the West End and elsewhere in classic revivals: Cooney farces, and musicals such as Me and My Girl (1984), Spread a Little Happiness (1992) and three of the Barbican's Lost Musicals series, Music in the Air (1993), the Gershwins' Strike Up the Band (1994) and Take Me Along (1995). Frank Thornton (centre) as Truly with Peter Sallis and Bill Owen in Last of the Summer Wine. Photograph: BBC The reality TV court show got its comeuppance with the spoof version All Rise for Julian Clary (1996-97) in which Thornton supplied the necessary token gravitas.

When his turn came for This Is Your Life in 1998, Clary responded with a glowing compliment: "I'm here, Frank, to tell the world what we all know, what a funny, amusing and very handsome man you are." By then Thornton had succeeded Michael Bates, Brian Wilde and Michael Aldridge in leading the exploits of the trio at the heart of Last of the Summer Wine: his tenure lasted from 1997 till the series came to a close in 2010. Thornton had more than 60 film credits, including Victim (1961), The Dock Brief (1962), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (with Zero Mostel, 1966), A Flea in Her Ear (with Rex Harrison, 1968), The Bed Sitting Room (1969), The Old Curiosity Shop (1995) and Gosford Park (2001), as well as the Disney TV adaptation of Great Expectations (1991). His last appearance came in the 2012 film version of Run for Your Wife.

He is survived by Beryl, whom he married in 1945; a daughter, Jane; and three grandsons. • Frank Thornton (Ball), actor, born 15 January 1921; died 16 March 2013 Frank Thornton: Actor forever remembered as Captain Peacock in 'Are You Being Served?' | The Independent Frank Thornton: Actor forever remembered as Captain Peacock in 'Are You Being Served?' Tuesday 19 March 2013 00:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Thornton, far right, with the staff at Grace Brothers; although he was typecast as Captain Peacock, he never regretted taking the role Rex Few British character actors so typified their class more than Frank Thornton, whether looking scornfully down at Tony Hancock or berating the staff of Grace Brothers as the supercilious Captain Peacock from Are You Being Served? Towering as he did above most actors at six feet two inches, Thornton tended to be cast in comedies as aloof, somewhat superior characters, men in authority, all of which made him such a good foil for the likes of Hancock and Spike Milligan.

His face, too, a mixture of bank manager and mournful bloodhound, also made him ideal for the type of character he'd become accustomed to playing, what he referred to as "the smell under the nose" parts typified by Captain Peacock, the character for which he made the biggest indelible impression upon the British public consciousness. Frank Thornton was born in London in 1921. He religiously attended Saturday morning pictures at his local cinema, adoring the likes of Laurel and Hardy and acting out their funny skits on the long walk home. But his first artistic leaning was towards music, for which he first showed an aptitude at school, appearing in Gilbert and Sullivan productions as well as playing the cello in the orchestra. It wasn't until 1982 that he returned to his beloved opera, appearing as the First Lord of the Admiralty in HMS Pinafore. While he was keen on an acting career his father, who worked in a bank, demanded his son secure a "proper" job and take up the theatre as an amateur.

It was while working as an insurance clerk and seeing a colleague leave to try his luck on the stage that finally prompted Thornton to enrol at an acting school, one that offered evening classes, enabling him to carry on working during office hours. When invited to become a day student for his second year, Thornton managed to persuade his father to finance his studies. The advent of the Second World War saw him evacuated with the drama school and led to his first professional engagement in 1940, touring with four plays around small towns and village halls in Ireland. Bolstered by that experience Thornton joined legendary actor/manager Donald Wolfit's Shakespearean company at London's Strand Theatre. Here he met a young actress called Beryl Evans, appearing as a page opposite his Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice. Despite her critique that his Bassanio was the worst she had ever witnessed the couple soon married and were still acting together on stage as late as 1989. Their daughter, Jane, also entered the theatre, as a stage manager.

Thornton continued to work in the theatre during the war, notably in John Gielgud's production of Macbeth and Terence Rattigan's Flare Path, as well as making several Allied propaganda broadcasts and serving as a navigator with the RAF. After demob in 1947 he was luckier than many of his contemporaries, who faced the daunting task of rebuilding their careers, and went straight back into repertory theatre, where his talent for comedy began to surface; he appeared alongside such accomplished comics as Robertson Hare and Alfred Drayton. Years later Thornton enjoyed joking about his early acting days, revealing how he'd take any job on offer. As he steadily built his reputation the question became, "What's the part like?" And then, "What's the money like?" But as he approached pensionable age the question was invariably, "What's the parking like?" Soon television began to play an increasingly prominent part in Thornton's career. He guest-starred in the classic blood donor episode of Hancock's Half Hour and appeared in Michael Bentine's madcap It's a Square World, which also featured a young Ronnie Barker and a pre-Dad's Army Clive Dunn.

A precursor to the type of surreal humour championed by Monty Python, It's a Square World established Thornton as a much sought-after supporting actor for comedy series. He played Commander Fairweather in the short-lived sitcom HMS Paradise, a pale imitation of the more popular Navy Lark, and teamed up with Spike Milligan for the sketch show World of Beachcomber. There were small roles, too, in movies as diverse as Carry on Screaming, The Bed Sitting Room, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and the all-star Three Musketeers. Playing second string to the likes of Hancock and Milligan appealed to Thornton and he never hankered after a show of his own, feeling the public would soon become "fed up with me." So after years of playing a variety of roles, to be suddenly identified with just one character, that of Captain Peacock, was a strange and career-changing experience. Are You Being Served? was one of the 1970s' seminal British sitcoms. Dismissed by critics, it achieved huge ratings and ran from 1973 to 1985, spawning a stage show and a spin-off movie.

Out of a wonderful ensemble cast Thornton's Captain Peacock emerged as an enduring figure, patrolling the floors of Grace Brothers department store, immaculately dressed and never missing his trademark carnation, his pomposity often burst by the likes of Mrs Slocombe (minus her pussy) and John Inman's immortal Mr Humphries. But typecasting was the inevitable consequence of being identified by the public with one character. Even when Are You Being Served? went off the air Thornton was constantly recognised as Peacock. Despite this he never regretted taking on the role, although other television work became increasingly difficult to come by. Whereas in America something like 39 episodes of a popular show would be made yearly, in England with the BBC it was nearer six or seven, so to keep in steady employment Thornton was forced back almost exclusively to the theatre, clocking up an impressive 594 performances in the West End musical Me and My Girl. He also worked with Derek Nimmo's touring theatre company in Asia and the Middle East. Yet it was Are You Being Served?

that continued to cast the biggest influence over his life, particularly in the 1990s, when the show unexpectedly became a massive cult success in America, a market BBC executives never anticipated tapping, believing they wouldn't understand its quintessential English humour. After it was repeated on British prime time in the late 1990s, achieving higher ratings than brand new sitcoms, a sequel was devised, Grace and Favour, which re-teamed the original cast as Grace Brothers moved out of their department store and into the countryside to look after a dilapidated hotel. Alas, the middle-class charms of this new show belied its lack of true comic invention. Off-screen Thornton was nothing like the dour, little Hitler, Captain Peacock; he was essentially a quiet, rather serious man and a keen conservationist and birdwatcher. He was also a keen portrait photographer, mostly of his fellow actors. Some of his photographs made it into the pages of Spotlight, the actor's employment bible. In 1997 Thornton finally moved out of the shadow of Are You Being Served?

when he was offered a lead role in perennial favourite Last of the Summer Wine, coming in to replace regular Brian Wilde, who dropped out due to illness. The chance to play Truly Truelove, an ex-police officer always nostalgically recalling the past, placed Thornton in the unique position of having starred in two of the longest-running television comedies of all time. Frank Thornton, actor: born London 15 January 1921; married 1945 Beryl Evans (one daughter); died 16 March 2013. Obituary: Frank Thornton - BBC News BBC News Read more about sharing. Close share panel Image caption Frank Thornton as Captain Peacock and Arthur Brough as Mr Grainger in Are You Being Served? in 1973 Frank Thornton, who has died at the age of 92, was a character actor who spent more than 20 years in bit parts until achieving national fame as the pompous Captain Peacock in the BBC sitcom Are You Being Served? Born Frank Thornton Ball on 15 January 1921 in south London, he wanted to act from his early childhood after watching the comedy stars of the silent film at a local cinema.

His father insisted he find a more stable career so he went into insurance, but soon began attending evening drama classes at the London School of Dramatic Art. After two years he was offered a place as a day student and persuaded his father to finance his studies. At the outbreak of World War II he, together with his fellow students, was evacuated to Oxfordshire where he found his first job in a touring production. Image caption Frank Thornton as Gremio in the 1980 BBC Shakespeare production of The Taming of the Shrew He returned to London in 1941 where he worked for the actor and impresario Sir Donald Wolfit who had re-opened the Strand Theatre to put on lunchtime productions of Shakespeare. He was conscripted into the air force as a navigator in 1943 and, after the end of the war, remained in the RAF entertainment unit where, among his charges, were Dick Emery, Peter Sellers and Tony Hancock. He appeared in the Edgar Lustgarten-hosted series The Silent Witness in 1954 and, a year later, was credited in the part of Inspector Finch in the British film Radio Cab Murder. Are you free?

The next 15 years saw him appearing in a wide range of small character parts in films and TV series including The Avengers and Danger Man. He also appeared in various comedy programmes such as It's a Square World, Hancock's Half-Hour, The Benny Hill Show, Sykes and Steptoe And Son, as well as movie spin-off Steptoe And Son Ride Again. In the 1966 film Carry on Screaming!, Thornton had a small role as the owner of a ladies' clothing shop. But it was in 1972 when he took the role of the officious Captain Stephen Peacock in the comedy series, Are You Being Served? that he became known to millions. As the well-dressed and superior-looking floor manager he had the job of keeping the staff of the Grace Brothers department store on their toes. Image caption Frank Thornton reprised his role as Captain Peacock in spin-off show Grace & Favour The series, relying on seaside postcard-style innuendo, was an enormous hit with the audience peaking at more than 22 million in 1979.

Thornton's experience as a comedy straight man made him ideally suited as the foil for characters such as Mrs Slocombe (Mollie Sugden) who sported a different hair colour every week and harped on about her "pussy", and the camp Mr Humphries (John Inman), famous for his catchphrase: "I'm free!" In 1980, he appeared alongside John Cleese in the BBC Television Shakespeare production of The Taming of the Shrew. Are You Being Served? ran until 1985. Thornton returned to a series of bit parts for the next seven years before reprising his role as Captain Peacock in the 1990s series Grace & Favour. Relying on the same saucy humour and the same catchphrases, it saw five of the original cast running a hotel but the format was looking tired and the series only lasted for 12 episodes. In 1997 Thornton joined the cast of the long running comedy series Last of the Summer Wine, as the character Herbert "Truly" Truelove.

Thornton's film roles included saucy 1970s British romps No Sex Please, We're British and Up The Chastity Belt. In 2001 he was among the cast for the Julian Fellowes-scripted period drama Gosford Park. His last film credit was a cameo in British film Run For Your Wife, alongside Richard Briers, who died in February. A passionate conservationist he supported a number of organisations including the World Land Trust and RSPB. Thornton was rarely out of work in a career that spanned more than 50 years, one of that fine school of British character actors which has graced TV and cinema. He is survived by Beryl, his wife of 67 years, daughter Jane and their three grandchildren.

Question: Born in 1921, who connects ‘Are You Being Served?’ with ‘Last of the Summer Wine’?
Answer: FRANK THORNTON