Richard Davies
Actor
Richard Davies was born Dennis Wilfred Davies on 25 January 1926 in Dowlais, near Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan, the son of a railway guard. He went on to become one of the most familiar Welsh character actors on British television, drawing on his broad Welsh accent for many of his best-loved roles while also proving himself adept at a wide range of other voices and characters.
Richard made an uncredited early screen appearance as a police driver in the Ealing Studios comedy The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), and went on to appear in the war epic Zulu (featuring Sir Stanley Baker) (1964) as Private 593 Jones. Through the 1960s he had a recurring role as Jim Sloan in the BBC police drama Z-Cars, returning to the series in different parts in 1968, and also appeared in the earlier, gentler police drama Dixon of Dock Green.
He was probably best known for playing the exasperated schoolmaster Mr Price in the LWT sitcom Please Sir! (1968-1972), a role he reprised in the 1971 film spin-off and the follow-up series The Fenn Street Gang. His broad comic timing and readiness to play up his Welshness made the character an audience favourite throughout the show's run.
Davies continued working prolifically into the 1990s, playing Idris Hopkins in Coronation Street (1974-1975), Mr White in the classic Fawlty Towers episode 'The Kipper and the Corpse', and Burton in the acclaimed 1987 Doctor Who serial Delta and the Bannermen. He died on 8 October 2015, aged 89, after a battle with Alzheimer's disease.