12 Facts About Bernard Miles

Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles was an English character actor, writer and director.

Bernard Miles opened the Mermaid Theatre in 1959, the first new theatre that opened in the City of London since the 17th century.

Bernard Miles was known for playing character roles that usually had bucolic backgrounds or links to countrymen.

Bernard Miles's pleasant rolling bass-baritone voice made him a regular presence on the stage and in films for more than fifty years.

Bernard Miles lived for a while in New Road, Hillingdon Heath.

Bernard Miles was known for his comic monologues, often delivered with a rural dialect, which were issued on record albums.

Bernard Miles married the actress Josephine Wilson, with whom he had two daughters and one son, the racing driver John Bernard Miles, in 1931.

Bernard Miles co-founded and was involved actively with Miles in the Mermaid Theatre.

Bernard Miles was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1953, was knighted in 1969, and was created a life peer as Baron Bernard Miles, of Blackfriars in the City of London, on 7 February 1979.

Bernard Miles was only the second British actor to receive a peerage, after Laurence Olivier.

Bernard Miles survived his wife by six months and died in June 1991.

Bernard Miles had been born in the same year, and died on the same day, as the actress Peggy Ashcroft.