Harold Innocent

Harold Sidney Innocent, born Harold Sidney Harrison on 18 April 1933 in England, was an actor whose career spanned stage, film, and television across several decades. He died in London on 12 September 1993, aged 60, following a short illness.

Innocent received his early education at Broad Street Secondary Modern School in Coventry before briefly working as an office clerk. Recognizing that clerical work was not a suitable path, he pursued formal training at the Birmingham School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art. Following National Service in the Royal Air Force, he entered repertory theatre, which laid the groundwork for a wide-ranging professional career.

His Broadway appearances came in 1958, when he performed in both Twelfth Night and Hamlet. He subsequently moved to Hollywood, where his American television work included a 1959 appearance in Alfred Hitchcock Presents and a role in The Barbara Stanwyck Show. During his time in California in the late 1960s, he was a member of the Pacifica Players ensemble, working at KPFK, and in 1968 recorded the first unabridged audio reading of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.

Upon returning to the United Kingdom, Innocent performed at a number of prominent theatrical institutions, among them the Nottingham Playhouse, the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, the Young Vic, the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, and the Bristol Old Vic. His RSC work in 1984 included productions of Richard III and Love's Labour's Lost. With the same company he also appeared in Henry V, taking on the roles of both the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of Burgundy. He reprised the role of the Duke of Burgundy in Kenneth Branagh's 1989 film adaptation of Henry V. In 1991, Innocent appeared in Alan Bennett's The Madness of George III at the National Theatre. His stage work also included a musical adaptation of Alice in Wonderland at the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith in 1986, and he made his operatic debut in a centenary production of Gilbert and Sullivan's Ruddigore at Sadler's Wells in 1987.

Innocent's film credits include Loot (1970), Brazil (1984), Henry V (1989), and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). His television appearances were extensive, encompassing the 1969 pilot episode of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), The Persuaders!, Callan, Crown Court, The Professionals, The Champions, Minder, Inspector Morse, EastEnders, and My Late Lamented Friend and Partner. He played the college Bursar alongside David Jason in Porterhouse Blue (1987), appeared as Lord Robert Gospell in the Inspector Alleyn Mysteries episode Death in a White Tie, and portrayed Pepito Giovanni in Maigret and the Mad Woman. He also appeared in the Doctor Who serial The Happiness Patrol as Gilbert M, and in the BBC Radio 5 drama serial The Paradise of Death. Additionally, he performed comic monologues and songs alongside Cilla Black in The Green Tie on the Little Yellow Dog, recorded in 1982 and broadcast on Channel 4 in 1983.