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Michael Balfour

Michael Balfour

Actor · 1918 – 1997 · Dover, Kent, England, UK

Michael Creighton Balfour (11 February 1918 – 24 October 1997) was an English actor, working mainly in British films and TV, following his TV debut in the BBC's The Marvellous History of St Bernard, in 1938. He was a recognisable face, often in small character parts and supporting roles, in nearly two hundred films and TV shows, from the 1940s to the 1990s, often playing comical heavies or otherwise shady characters notable for their "loud" clothes, sometimes convincingly cast as an American. He worked for a roll call of film directors, including Tony Richardson, Pete Walker, Billy Wilder, Lewis Gilbert, Roman Polanski, Leslie Norman, Tim Burton, John Frankenheimer, François Truffaut, John Gilling, Stanley Donen, Ken Annakin, Cavalcanti, Lance Comfort, Terence Young, Gerald Thomas, Pasolini, John Paddy Carstairs, Terence Fisher, Val Guest, Frank Launder, John Huston, Basil Dearden and Howard Hawks. Balfour had parts in many popular TV shows of the era including Educated Evans, Mess Mates, Danger Man, The Avengers, Hancock's Half Hour, Dixon of Dock Green, Rogue's Gallery, Z-Cars, The Onedin Line, and the detective drama The Vise, playing Saber's assistant Barney O'Keefe. Balfour was also known as the passenger in a Jaguar XK120 car driven by actor Bonar Colleano when it crashed, killing Colleano. Balfour's injuries required him to have 98 stitches, but he was released from hospital in time to attend Colleano's funeral. As his screen career began to slow down in the late 1970s, Michael Balfour went on tour with European circuses, as a clown. He founded Circus Hazzard, and created his own clown character. His son later became a circus manager. As well as performing, Balfour was a dedicated painter and sculptor, and in later years turned increasingly to sculpture and the arts, even running his own gallery for a while. For his subjects, he frequently drew on his own family career as a circus clown

Movies24

  • Movie7.2

    Batman

    1989 · 8.8K votes

  • Movie7.1

    Fahrenheit 451

    1966 · 1.1K votes

  • Movie6.1

    I racconti di Canterbury

    The Canterbury Tales

    1972 · 238 votes

  • Movie5.8

    The Oblong Box

    1969 · 107 votes

  • Movie7.1

    Macbeth

    1971 · 303 votes

  • Movie6.8
  • Movie6.4

    Quatermass 2

    1957 · 152 votes

  • Movie6.6

    Moulin Rouge

    1952 · 117 votes

  • Movie6.9

    I Was a Male War Bride

    1949 · 150 votes

  • Movie5.7

    The Prisoner of Zenda

    1979 · 39 votes

  • Movie6.8

    Sink the Bismarck!

    1960 · 125 votes

  • Movie5.3

    Kaleidoscope

    1966 · 14 votes

  • Movie6.7

    Look Back in Anger

    1959 · 79 votes

  • Movie6.9

    Candleshoe

    1977 · 124 votes

  • Movie6.6

    The Flesh and the Fiends

    1960 · 59 votes

  • Movie4.8

    Too Hot to Handle

    1960 · 24 votes

  • Movie6.2

    Venetian Bird

    1952 · 18 votes

  • Movie4.1

    Casanova

    1987 · 12 votes

  • Movie6.0

    The Krays

    1990 · 125 votes

  • Movie7.4

    A Stitch in Time

    1963 · 36 votes

  • Movie6.3

    Carry On Constable

    1960 · 62 votes

  • Movie5.4

    Joseph Andrews

    1977 · 14 votes

  • Movie6.4

    Helter Skelter

    1949 · 4 votes

  • Movie5.5

    The Holcroft Covenant

    1985 · 93 votes

Series22

  • TV7.8

    The Avengers

    1961 · 156 votes

  • TV7.0
  • TV6.0

    Dixon of Dock Green

    1955 · 4 votes

  • TV7.7

    The Persuaders!

    1971 · 135 votes

  • TV7.3

    Danger Man

    1960 · 25 votes

  • TV3.5

    Sunday Night Theatre

    1950 · 2 votes

  • TV6.8

    Dempsey and Makepeace

    1985 · 33 votes

  • TV7.7

    The Prisoner

    1967 · 219 votes

  • TV6.3

    New Scotland Yard

    1972 · 3 votes

  • TV7.3

    Interpol Calling

    1959 · 4 votes

  • TV5.5

    Department S

    1969 · 17 votes

  • TV7.8

    Steptoe and Son

    1962 · 39 votes

  • TV7.4

    Hancock's Half Hour

    1956 · 9 votes

  • TV7.6

    The Larkins

    1958 · 5 votes

  • TV
  • TV
  • TV
  • TV6.0

    Armchair Theatre

    1956 · 6 votes

  • TV
  • TV5.0
  • TV
  • TV9.5

    Rogues' Gallery

    1968 · 2 votes