Tony Sympson

Tony Sympson was a British actor born on 10 July 1906 in London, England, who died on 30 March 1983. His career spanned film, television, and stage, including a Broadway appearance in 1965 in which he played Mr. Pickwick.

Sympson's film work began in the early 1930s. He appeared in The Indiscretions of Eve (1932) as Pip and went on to play the recurring role of Tinker in three Sexton Blake films: Sexton Blake and the Mademoiselle (1935), Sexton Blake and the Bearded Doctor (1935), and Sexton Blake and the Hooded Terror (1938). Other film roles from that decade included Alf Higgins in Rhythm in the Air (1936), Shorty Peabody in The Mutiny of the Elsinore (1937), and Luc Meynet in The Challenge (1938).

His film appearances continued steadily through the following decades. He played Nikki in Street of Shadows (1953) and the Little Tailor in Keep It Clean (1956), and took on the role of Grune in The Counterfeit Plan (1957). Later credits included Lord Plumley in The Ghost Goes Gear (1966), the Clerk of the Court in Lock Up Your Daughters! (1969), Henry in House of Whipcord (1974), Grandfather in Eskimo Nell (1975), an Opera Conductor in The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975), Mr. Shork in The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), and 3rd Peasant in Jabberwocky (1977). He also appeared in Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1980) as an old man.

On British television, Sympson built a substantial body of work across multiple decades. He played Tom Cobb in the BBC's Barnaby Rudge in 1960 and appeared in episodes of No Hiding Place (ITV, 1962), Ghost Squad (ITV, 1963), and Thursday Theatre (BBC, 1965). In the 1970s he took on roles in The Sweeney, The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, and All Creatures Great and Small, the latter casting him as Cliff Tyreman in a 1978 episode. He appeared in several episodes of Are You Being Served? between 1976 and 1983, playing different characters across those years, and his final television credit was a 1983 episode of Play for Today in which he played Owen in Shall I Be Mother?, the same year he died.