18 Facts About Robin Bailey

William Henry Mettam "Robin" Bailey was an English actor.

Robin Bailey collaborated with Tinniswood on the television and radio series Tales from a Long Room, playing the Brigadier, an eccentric cricket-lover with a fund of extraordinary tales about the game and its players.

Robin Bailey was born at Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, the son of china and glass merchant George Henry Robin Bailey and Thirza Ann.

Robin Bailey acted in repertory at Newcastle upon Tyne and joined the Army in 1940.

Robin Bailey first appeared on film in 1946, in School for Secrets, directed by Peter Ustinov, and other parts followed.

Robin Bailey made his London stage debut in 1947, as Ludovico in Othello at the Piccadilly Theatre, and his first television appearance in 1950.

Many more roles followed in all three media, and Robin Bailey became a voice actor for BBC Radio as well.

Robin Bailey had a helpful resemblance to Rex Harrison who had created the Higgins part in London and New York, on record and in the eventual film of the work.

Robin Bailey moved to Sydney with the production and the Williamson production of My Fair Lady between the two companies, toured all over Australia, South Africa and New Zealand for more than five years.

Robin Bailey later visited Australia to play Martin Lynch-Gibbon in A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch from a novel by the playwright, a role he had created in London and New York.

Robin Bailey appeared as Mr Hale in the 1975 TV serial adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's "North and South".

Robin Bailey was the subject of This Is Your Life in 1982 when he was surprised by Eamonn Andrews at the Savoy Hotel in London.

Robin Bailey played Charters in the 1985 mini-series Charters and Caldicott co-starring Michael Aldridge as Caldicott; and Sir Leicester Dedlock in the 1985 BBC adaptation of Bleak House.

Robin Bailey played the role of Mr Fuzziwig in KYTV's The Making of David Chizzlenut episode in 1993.

Robin Bailey played Mr Justice Gerald Graves in Rumpole of the Bailey, and Hereward Fielding in the An Autumn Shroud episode of BBC's Dalziel and Pascoe series in 1996.

Robin Bailey performed several books on tape, reading books by Agatha Christie, Catherine Aird, Nevil Shute and Ruth Rendell.

Robin Bailey was married to Patricia Mary Weekes from 6 September 1941 until her death on 2 October 1993.

Robin Bailey died on 14 January 1999 aged 79 in Wandsworth, London, of respiratory failure.