21 Facts About Alastair Sim

Alastair Sim began his theatrical career at the age of thirty and quickly became established as a popular West End performer, remaining so until his death in 1976.

Alastair Sim ran his own private elocution and drama school, from which, with the help of the playwright John Drinkwater, he made the transition to the professional stage in 1930.

Alastair Sim's films included Green for Danger, Hue and Cry, The Happiest Days of Your Life, Scrooge, The Belles of St Trinian's and An Inspector Calls.

Alastair Sim was born in Edinburgh, the youngest child and second son of Alexander Alastair Sim, a ladies' tailor and clothier who served on several Edinburgh committees and was a school governor and Justice of the Peace, and Isabella.

Alastair Sim's mother moved to Edinburgh as a teenager from Eigg, one of the Small Isles in the Hebrides, and was a native Gaelic speaker.

Alastair Sim was educated at Bruntsfield Primary school, and received his secondary education at James Gillespie's High School and George Heriot's School.

Alastair Sim's announcement was so badly received that he left the parental home and spent about a year in the Scottish Highlands with a group of itinerant jobbing workers.

Alastair Sim followed Othello with productions ranging from a musical revue to a medieval costume drama by Clifford Bax, in whose The Venetian he made his Broadway debut in October 1931.

Alastair Sim performed in ten plays by Shakespeare, two each by Shaw and Drinkwater, and one by Sheridan.

For several months in 1934, Alastair Sim was incapacitated by a slipped disc, which was successfully treated by osteopathy.

Alastair Sim was among the top British film stars of the early and mid 1950s, but his films of the late 1950s are considered by the critic Michael Brooke to be of lesser quality, because of poor scripts or lack of innovative direction.

In 1959, Alastair Sim sued the food company H J Heinz over a television advertisement for its baked beans; the advertisement had a voiceover sounding remarkably like him, and he insisted that he would not "prostitute his art" by advertising anything.

Alastair Sim lost the case and attracted some ridicule for his action, but he was conscious of the importance of his highly recognisable voice to his professional success.

The new plays in which Alastair Sim appeared were Michael Gilbert's Windfall, William Trevor's The Elephant's Foot and Ronald Millar's Number Ten ; he directed all three productions.

Alastair Sim's performances provided some consolation: in the first, The Times said, his "treacherously sweet smiles, triple takes and unheralded spasms of apoplectic fury almost make the evening worth while".

Alastair Sim returned to the cinema in 1971 as the voice of Scrooge in an animated adaptation of A Christmas Carol.

Alastair Sim seldom gave press interviews and refused to sign autographs.

In 1948, Alastair Sim was elected Rector of the University of Edinburgh.

Alastair Sim held the post until 1951; when he stood down he was made an honorary Doctor of Law.

Alastair Sim was appointed CBE in 1953, and refused a knighthood in the early 1970s.

Alastair Sim died in 1976, aged 75, in London, from complications of lung cancer.