George Innes

George Innes is a British actor born on 8 March 1938 in Stepney, East London, whose career has spanned stage, film, and television across six decades. He trained at Toynbee Hall and through evening classes at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), where he received the Shakespeare Cup for excellence. His final period of formal study took place at the Bristol Old Vic School. Early in his career he worked under director Frank Dunlop, who had also taught him at Toynbee Hall and LAMDA, appearing in Bernard Kops's The Dream of Peter Mann at the Edinburgh Festival and on a tour of Great Britain. He subsequently joined Dunlop again for The Pantomime at the Bristol Old Vic, followed by a season at Nottingham Playhouse with Dunlop and John Neville.

Innes launched his Broadway career in 1963 with Chips with Everything, a Royal Court Theatre production that had also played in the West End. His stage work during this period extended to the National Theatre of Great Britain under Laurence Olivier, where he understudied Frank Finlay's Iago in Othello, performed at both Chichester and The Old Vic. Additional National Theatre credits from that era include Dutch Courtesan, Mother Courage, Hobson's Choice, and The Master Builder. At the National Theatre on the South Bank, he appeared in Tom Stoppard's Jumpers and in Bedroom Farce, directed by Peter Hall, which transferred to the West End. He also performed in The Vortex at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, directed by Bob Ackerman.

His second Broadway credit came in 1993–94 with The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, a Steppenwolf Theatre Company production directed by Simon Curtis that originated in Chicago before transferring to Broadway. That appearance marked the end of his Broadway performing span, which ran from 1963 to 1994. Subsequent stage work in London included Rosmersholm at the Southwark Playhouse in 1997 and Riders to the Sea at the same venue in 2005. In 2009 he appeared off-Broadway in The Lodger at the Workshop Theatre, directed by Harris Yulin. There he developed a one-man show titled Tribute, drawn from the Ages of Man by Sir John Gielgud, which he also performed at The Players club in New York City, at the August 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, at the Barron's Court Pub Theatre in London in March 2010, and on a westward tour to California.

Innes has maintained an extensive film career. His earlier credits include Billy Liar (1963, directed by John Schlesinger), The Italian Job (1969, directed by Peter Collinson), Gumshoe (1971, directed by Stephen Frears), A Bridge Too Far (1977, directed by Richard Attenborough), Quadrophenia (1979, directed by Franc Roddam), and Ordeal by Innocence (1984, directed by Desmond Davis), among many others. Later film appearances include Last Orders (2001, directed by Fred Schepisi), Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003, directed by Peter Weir), Stardust (2007, directed by Matthew Vaughn), and Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007, directed by Shekhar Kapur).

His television work has earned him two Emmy Award nominations. Among his many credits are recurring and featured roles in Upstairs, Downstairs, Minder, Budgie, Danger UXB, I, Claudius, Rumpole of the Bailey, Hill Street Blues, Magnum, P.I., Cagney and Lacey, M*A*S*H, and Midsomer Murders, as well as appearances in Noble House, The Ruth Rendell Mysteries, Adam Bede, and Newhart, spanning both British and American television productions.