Tony Beckley

Last updated 09 January 2020

Tony Beckley (1927-1980)
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Tony Beckley

Born: Friday 7th October 1927
Died: Saturday 19th April 1980 (age: 52)

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Tony Beckley  was an English character actor. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Beckley went onto carve out a career on film and television throughout the 1960s and 1970s often playing villainous roles, as well as being a veteran of numerous stage productions.

He was best known for playing the villainous Harrison Chase in the 1975 story The Seeds of Doom

He made his film debut in 1965 as Ned Poins in Orson WellesChimes at Midnight, and appeared in a number of films for director Peter CollinsonThe Penthouse (1967); The Long Day's Dying(1968); and most memorably as Camp Freddie in The Italian Job (1969).

His only starring role was as the psychotic Kenny Wemys in The Fiend (1972), and he made his last film appearance in 1979 playing another psychopath in When a Stranger Calls. Other films include The Lost Continent (1968), Get Carter (1971), Assault (1971), Sitting Target (1972), Gold(1974), and Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978).

Television credits include The SaintZ-CarsManhuntCallanJason KingSpecial Branch, and perhaps most notably as the villainous Harrison Chase in the Doctor Who serial The Seeds of Doom.

Beckley was terminally ill at the time of filming When a Stranger Calls in 1979, and died of cancer shortly after principal photography was completed (spring 1980).

Biography from the Wikipedia article, licensed under CC-BY-SA