Roger Livesey

Roger Livesey (25 June 1906 – 4 February 1976) was a British stage and film actor born in Barry, Wales, to actor Joseph Livesey and Mary Catherine Edwards. He received his education at Westminster City School in London and trained under Italia Conti. His first stage appearance came in 1917, when he played the office boy in Loyalty at St James's Theatre. Through the early 1920s he performed across a range of West End productions, from Shakespeare to modern comedies, before touring the West Indies and South Africa. He subsequently joined the Old Vic/Sadler's Wells company, where he remained from September 1932 through May 1934.

Livesey made his Broadway debut in 1936, appearing in New York City in William Wycherley's comedy The Country Wife. His Broadway career extended through 1969 and included productions of Hamlet and Storm Over Patsy. It was during his 1936 New York engagement that he married actress Ursula Jeans, whom he had known previously in England. The connection between the two families ran deeper still: Livesey's sister Maggie was already married to Ursula Jeans' brother Desmond at the time of the wedding.

His film career reached its widest international audience through three productions made with directors Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger between 1943 and 1946: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, I Know Where I'm Going!, and A Matter of Life and Death. Powell had originally sought Laurence Olivier for the lead in Colonel Blimp, but Winston Churchill's objections to the film and the Fleet Air Arm's refusal to release Olivier led Powell to cast Livesey instead. The film's New York release established Livesey's reputation as a character actor beyond Britain. In 1945, he was the first choice for the male lead in Brief Encounter, a role that ultimately went to Trevor Howard.

During the Second World War, Livesey and Jeans volunteered early to entertain troops. He applied for flying duties with the Royal Air Force but was rejected on account of his age, and instead contributed to the war effort by working in an aircraft factory at Desford aerodrome near Leicester. From 1956 to 1958 he toured Australia playing Jimmy Broadbent in The Reluctant Debutante, and he continued taking theatrical roles alongside his film and television work until 1969. Among his later television credits was the role of the Duke of St Bungay in The Pallisers, and his final television appearance was in the series Benjamin Franklin in 1975.

Livesey died in Watford on 4 February 1976 from colorectal cancer at the age of 69. He shares a memorial plaque with Ursula Jeans at St Paul's Church in Covent Garden, the actors' church.