George Sewell

George Sewell (31 August 1924 – 2 April 2007) was an English actor born in London, England, whose career encompassed theatre, film, and an extensive body of television work. The son of a Hoxton printer and a florist, he left school at fourteen and worked briefly in the printing trade before taking up the repair of bomb-damaged buildings. He subsequently trained as a Royal Air Force pilot, though his service concluded before he could see action in the Second World War. After demobilization, Sewell joined the Merchant Navy, working for the Cunard Line as an oil trimmer in the engine rooms of the RMS Queen Mary and RMS Queen Elizabeth on their Atlantic crossings. He also worked as a street photographer, assisted a French roller-skating team, served as drummer and assistant road manager for a rumba band, and traveled across Europe as a motor coach courier.

Sewell did not pursue acting until he was thirty-five, when a chance encounter in a pub with actor Dudley Sutton led to an audition for Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop production of Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be. He made his stage debut playing a policeman in that production, performing both at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East and in the West End. He went on to appear in two further Littlewood productions: Sparrers Can't Sing in 1962, and Oh! What a Lovely War in 1963, in which he played Field Marshal Haig. That production subsequently opened in Paris and came to Broadway in 1964, marking Sewell's appearance on the New York stage.

His television career was prolific and spanned several decades. Among his earlier roles, he appeared as the tallyman in Up the Junction (1965), a hard-nosed building engineer in The Power Game (1965–66), a cowardly informer in Man in a Suitcase (1967), and a seedy private eye in Spindoe (1968). In 1969 he played escaped convict Jansen in the Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) episode "Vendetta for a Dead Man." The following year he took on two notable roles: Colonel Alec Freeman in Gerry Anderson's science-fiction drama UFO, and resistance leader Pierre Allard in three episodes of the ITV series Manhunt. He also appeared in a 1971 episode of Public Eye as Harry Brierly and played Detective Baker in the Rising Damp episode "The Prowler."

In 1973, Euston Films cast Sewell as lead character DCI Alan Craven in a revitalized Special Branch, a role he held for two seasons. That same year he was the subject of This Is Your Life, surprised by Eamonn Andrews while on location filming the series. Special Branch is regarded as a stylistic forerunner to The Sweeney, in which Sewell also appeared, this time in the role of a villain. He later parodied his law enforcement persona as Superintendent Frank Cottam in the Jasper Carrott and Robert Powell comedy The Detectives, and played Ray Walker in series nine of Heartbeat. Later television credits include the role of Mendel in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1979) and the character Ratcliffe, a builder's merchant and fascist leader, in the Doctor Who story Remembrance of the Daleks (1988).

Sewell's film appearances included This Sporting Life (1963), Poor Cow (1967), and Get Carter (1971). His brother Danny Sewell, a former boxer, also pursued an acting career. George Sewell died from cancer on 2 April 2007 at the age of eighty-two.