Guest actors in The Avengers

[cyberrich]

It never ceases to amaze me how many familiar faces I see in movies and TV series, very often a familiar character actor I can't always put a name to. And of course the reason I recognise them is due to their having playied a role in a certain TV series! I've just watched Scrooged (well it is that time of year!) and the waiter seemed very familiar. Then it dawned on me. He was in False witness. Tony Steedman . A perfect name for an Avengers guest actor!
Recently I watched Public eye on the excellent Talking pictures channel and Barry Warren appeared, also from False witness. He appeared in a lot of TV in the 60s and 70s then disappeared in the mid 70s. He lived until 1994 but didn't act again after the mid 70s according to IMDb. I thought this seemed strange until I read online that Sarah Miles claimed in her autobiography that he had had a sex change operation.
Is there an Avengers connection even stranger than Scrooged that you've encountered?

[Frankymole]

Tony Steedman showing up in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (as Socrates) was a bit of a surprise!

And Joss Ackland was in the sequel as the villain, he's in loads of ITC stuff but I think was not in The Avengers, sadly.

[mousemeat]

i forgot that Tony was in that first Bill and Ted film..seems like eons, ago...I'll locate it in my dvd stash, and check it out.

[cyberrich]

Actually Franky I've only realised a few weeks ago that Joss Ackland was in the Avengers. He was the brigadier in The morning after. After over 40 years of watching The Avengers I'm still finding out that certain actors have appeared in it!

[Frankymole]

Actually Franky I've only realised a few weeks ago that Joss Ackland was in the Avengers. He was the brigadier in The morning after. After over 40 years of watching The Avengers I'm still finding out that certain actors have appeared in it!

Whew, that's a relief! I haven't seen that episode for ages and it's one I really enjoyed!

I'm glad we got him - he's a superb actor. Great performances in so many great shows - most recently I saw him for the first time in the 1969 The Gold Robbers TV series which Talking Pictures TV are showing. A strong episode built around him where he showed about three or four emotions at once in one expression... and what a voice he had.

Thanks for the reminder!

[mousemeat]

not only did the series, give work to a lot of actors, ITC with it's vary series, did the same..some truly great actors...and a few fall into that catalog of know their faces, but the 'name' escapes....lol

[Rhonda]

When I saw "Aunt Mavis" in 1980's TV's The Flipside of Dominick Hide I felt I'd seen the actress before in The Avengers. Had to look it up but she was in the episode The Girl From Auntie, again playing an aunt - Aunt Hetty. It is Sylvia Coleridge. Yes, The Avengers has very many familiar TV and film faces I agree; its part of what makes it a great programme.

[Frankymole]

When I saw "Aunt Mavis" in 1980's TV's The Flipside of Dominick Hide I felt I'd seen the actress before in The Avengers. Had to look it up but she was in the episode The Girl From Auntie, again playing an aunt - Aunt Hetty. It is Sylvia Coleridge. Yes, The Avengers has very many familiar TV and film faces I agree; its part of what makes it a great programme.

She plays a very similar role to her Flipside of Dominick Hide one in Out of the Unknown (made earlier), an adaption of the Asimov story The Dead Past. Very moving it is, too, with some similar themes of lost-in-time love and relatives. Unsurprisingly, it's by the same screenwriter, Jeremy Paul.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0279036/reference/

I've always loved her as the dotty botanical artist in one of the best Doctor Who stories, The Seeds of Doom.

[cyberrich]

Last night I watched the Call the midwife Christmas special starring the wonderful Judy Parfitt. I know she was in four Avengers episodes, Escape in time being the best of these. Would I be right in thinking that Judy is the actress who has made the most Avengers guest appearances? Philip Madoc made five episodes, so I'm guessing he made the most guest appearances. I've only just read that Judy was married to Tony Steedman who I mentioned a few posts back. It all dovetails!

[dissolute]

My "Dirtier by the Dozen" most appearances page will tell you.
Apart from main and secondary characters, extras and stuntmen, there are a bunch of actors with 6 appearances each. but Edwin Richfield is the only actor to appear in every series of The Avengers even though he oddly did not show up in The New Avengers.
The actresses with the most appearances (4), with the same qualifiers, are Judy Parfitt and Patricia Haines (If I'm right about her being in "Girl on the Trapeze", as it's certainly NOT Nadia Regin).