A. E. Matthews

Alfred Edward Matthews, known professionally as A. E. Matthews, was born on 22 November 1869 in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, and died on 25 July 1960 in Bushey Heath, Hertfordshire, at the age of 90. Nicknamed "Matty," he built a career spanning eight decades across stage and screen, accumulating credits in theatre, silent film, sound film, radio, and television.

Matthews married actress May Blayney, whose most recognized stage role was Julie Alardy in Monckton Hoffe's The Little Damozel. The couple had three children — a daughter and twin sons.

By his mid-forties Matthews had established himself as a prominent stage actor, and he subsequently entered the film industry during the silent era through the British Actors Film Company, a production concern that operated from 1916 to 1923. His Broadway career extended from 1910 to 1949 and encompassed productions including Matrimony Pfd., The Dominant Sex, These Two, Spring Meeting, and Yes, M'Lord. During World War II he toured in The First Mrs. Fraser alongside Marie Tempest and Barry Morse.

His stage work was complemented by a substantial list of film appearances. Among his best-known screen credits are The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, The Million Pound Note with Gregory Peck, Carry On Admiral, Doctor at Large, Around the World in 80 Days — in which he portrayed a member of the Reform Club — Inn for Trouble, The Magic Box, The Ghosts of Berkeley Square, and Just William's Luck. Director Ronald Neame, working with Matthews on The Million Pound Note in 1954, scheduled all of his scenes for the mornings because Matthews became confused and forgetful later in the day.

In 1951 King George VI appointed Matthews an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. That same year, on 15 August 1951, he appeared on BBC Radio's Desert Island Discs as the guest of host Roy Plomley, becoming Plomley's 100th castaway.

In his 89th year Matthews attracted national press attention when he spent several days and nights sitting on the pavement outside his Georgian home in Bushey Heath to protest a council plan to install a streetlight he considered incompatible with the character of the neighbourhood. Spike Milligan drew on the episode for a Goon Show instalment titled "The Evils of Bushey Spon," first broadcast on 17 March 1958. Matthews himself appeared at the end of the programme; aware that Matthews had never worked from a script, Milligan left those pages blank and allowed the segment to be performed ad-lib.

On 5 May 1958 Matthews appeared on the live BBC television programme This Is Your Life, hosted by Eamonn Andrews. At the close of the broadcast he was faded out just as he began addressing the studio audience directly, prompting complaints from viewers and press coverage including a Daily Express article headlined "Mattie's BBC Fade-Out Angers Viewers." Andrews later wrote in his autobiography that Matthews had interrupted, contradicted, snorted, laughed, and at one point stretched out on the couch and announced he intended to take a nap. The Yorkshire Post stated the following day that no previous edition of the programme had resembled it.

Matthews continued acting until shortly before his death. A blue plaque marks his former home at 38 Little Bushey Lane in Bushey Heath. In 2008 Greg Knight, the Member of Parliament for the East Riding of Yorkshire constituency that includes Bridlington, led a successful campaign to have Matthews's birthplace recognized with a blue plaque. A commemorative ceremony was held in Bridlington on 22 November 2008, attended by ventriloquist Ray Alan, who had known Matthews personally.