Harry Towb

Harry Towb (27 July 1925 – 24 July 2009) was a Northern Irish actor whose career spanned stage, television, film, and radio across more than five decades. Born in Larne, County Antrim, to a Russian-Jewish father and an Irish-Jewish mother, Towb once remarked that he was the only Jew ever born in Larne. Following his parents' divorce, he relocated with his mother and sister to north Belfast, where he attended Finiston School and Technical College. During World War II he enlisted in the British Army and managed a military canteen, though he was discharged after it came to light that he had misrepresented his age.

Towb began his stage career with a touring theatre company in Ireland before moving into repertory theatre in England. His first London appearance came in 1950 in The Gentle Gunman. He subsequently spent a number of years with the Royal Shakespeare Company before joining the Royal National Theatre company in 1979, where he first played Charley in Death of a Salesman. In 1982 he appeared in Richard Eyre's productions of The Beggar's Opera, Guys and Dolls, and Bertolt Brecht's Schweyk in the Second World War, as well as The Prince of Homburg, directed by John Burgess. He returned to the National Theatre in 2004 to appear in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.

His Broadway career ran from 1966 to 1975 and included appearances in Under the Weather, Sherlock Holmes, and Travesties. In musical theatre, Towb took a role in the musical adaptation of Bar Mitzvah Boy and performed in the 1983 original London production of Little Shop of Horrors, which was based on Roger Corman's low-budget horror film and starred the original American lead Ellen Greene. In 1989 he appeared in a London revival of Anything Goes alongside Elaine Paige and Bernard Cribbins.

On British television, Towb was a cast member of The Army Game, ITV's first comedy series, from 1957 to 1961. He made numerous subsequent appearances across popular series including Callan, The Avengers, The Saint, Doctor Who, Minder, The Bill, Casualty, Crown Court, Home James!, Heartbeat, and the Ronald Howard-led Sherlock Holmes. He was also a regular presenter on the BBC Schools programme You and Me, featuring alongside Cosmo and Dibs, and appeared on the long-running BBC music hall programme The Good Old Days. In the late 1970s he featured in a series of television commercials for Younger's Tartan Special beer that aired frequently in Scotland. In December 2008 he appeared in two episodes of the BBC soap opera EastEnders, playing David, the fiancé of Janine Butcher. In radio, he appeared in the 1959 Hancock's Half Hour episode "Fred's Pie Stall."

His film credits include Above Us the Waves (1955), The Blue Max (1966), Prudence and the Pill (1968), Patton (1970), and Lamb (1985). Towb maintained a strong connection to his Jewish heritage throughout his life and in 1983 recorded a documentary titled Odd Men In, examining Belfast's Jewish community. He described his interview with Belfast-born Chaim Herzog for that documentary as his proudest professional moment.

Towb was married to actress Diana Hoddinott, with whom he had three children. He died at his London home in July 2009 from complications due to cancer, three days before his eighty-fourth birthday.