传
George Peter Innes, a London-born actor known for his deep voice, trained as a Shakespearean performer at Toynbee Hall and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA). He made his stage debut in 1959 at the National Theatre under Laurence Olivier’s direction and at the Bristol Hippodrome. Innes featured in Arnold Wesker’s Chips with Everything, which premiered at the Royal Court Theatre in 1962 before moving to Broadway in 1963. He was also Frank Finlay’s understudy for Iago in Othello at the National Theatre and portrayed Archbishop Cranmer in A Man for All Seasons at Nottingham Playhouse.
The son of a boxer, Innes frequently played tough, combative roles. Beginning his screen career in 1963, he is best known for his role as Bill Bailey, Charlie Croker’s loyal ‘jobber,’ in the original 1969 film The Italian Job. He appeared alongside Michael Caine in The Last Valley (1971) and with Albert Finney in Charlie Bubbles (1968) and Gumshoe (1971). A favored actor for period dramas and literary adaptations, Innes took on roles such as Romans in I, Claudius (1976), Masada (1981), and Antony & Cleopatra (1981). He played Wamba, Cedric’s faithful servant, in Ivanhoe (1982); Jeremy Cruncher, a daytime dogsbody and nighttime ‘resurrectionist,’ in A Tale of Two Cities (1980); the naive but kind clerk Newman Noggs in The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001); and a seasoned sailor aboard the HMS Surprise in Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003).
On television, Innes appeared in numerous well-known British and American series, including The Avengers (1961), Open All Hours (1976), Minder (1979), Hill Street Blues (1981), Magnum, P.I. (1980), and M*A*S*H (1972). One of his standout TV performances was as a pompous visiting English doctor who manages to ‘out-snob’ even the arrogant Major Winchester.
