William Mervyn (1912)

Mervyn

The son of a colonial offcial he was brought up in Yorkshire where with no theatrical training he joined the Hull Repertory company where after a short time he was, for the only time in his career, given a juvenile lead and taken off after 2 nights as he had to kiss a girl and she complained. He was never really young. After his demob at the end of WWII in which he served as a military administrator to an African outpost as the oldest 2nd lt. in the army. Bald and dome headed from his early 30's he established himself in a succession of stage and television successes which led to his best known role as Inspector Rose, an upper crust detective, from 1963 to 1968. On BBC he overlapped in the series All Gas and Gaiters. Other series included a 3 year stint as the Judge in Crown Court plus the odd film including The Ruling Class and The Railway Children. He died 6 August 1976 leaving his wife Anne and 3 sons, Michael, Richard and Nicholas