Michael Gwynn

[cornershop15]

Michael Gwynn has become a familiar face during my DVD viewing the last few years, but for a long time I only knew him from Fawlty Towers. He's the 'aristocratic' Lord Melbury - eventually exposed as a conman - in the first episode, A Touch of Class (1975):

From The Actors Compendium

Remember him now, with the briefcase that contained bricks instead of valuables? You can see it on YouTube if you don't have the DVD.

The combination of DVD and The Internet Movie Database has greatly improved my knowledge of lesser known actors. Before discovering forgotten shows of the 1960s and 70s, I mainly knew supporting and character players from films. Sometimes the gaps between seeing them in all sorts of roles can be so long that I forget names and faces.

Over the years, I would have seen Michael in Village of the Damned, Cleopatra, The Fall of the Roman Empire, Catch Us If You Can (with The Dave Clark Five!), The Virgin Soldiers, and the R.A.F. episode of Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. I haven't watched Jason and the Argonauts, which was on again a few days ago, since childhood, in the 1970s. One of the last series I recorded on video - and one of the first I bought on DVD - was Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), but even those viewings didn't help me to rememeber the actor, or recognise him as Lord Melbury.

The breakthrough finally occured about four years ago when I saw the Thriller episode A Coffin for the Bride (1974):

"I'm never going to forget your face."

From the moment he said that line, I've paid close attention to all his appearances. It's such a compelling moment in the story. He plays the lawyer of Michael Jayston's first wife, and victim (Margaret Courtenay), and dares to accuse him of killing her. Unfortunately, Michael's interference results in him being strangled to death in his car about halfway into the episode. I was really saddened by his early exit (much like Walter Matthau's in Mirage and Gordon Jackson's in The Ipcress File) but enjoyed his performance so much in this that I became a fan. It took long enough! Mystery remains why most of the others I mentioned didn't have the same effect ...

That first viewing of A Coffin for the Bride - also on You Tube - would no doubt have made me want to know more about Michael Gwynn (the IMDb was very new to me then) and I'm sure this is when I learned that he died, from a heart attack, so soon after his memorable turn in Fawlty Towers. He was 59. What a terrible shock this must have been. How was it reported in the newspapers, or on TV?

So far my collection includes his appearances in the films Village of the Damned and the unseen Scars of Dracula, and the TV series Mystery and Imagination, The Mind of Mr. J.G. Reeder, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, and of course Thriller and Fawlty Towers. And then there are the ITC shows, with guest roles in Espionage, Danger Man, The Saint, The Baron, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Department S and The Adventurer. I don't have Jason King.

After somehow passing me by for so many years, Michael is now firmly established as a cult favourite - unknown to most but increasingly popular with this viewer. A sad loss but I'm very grateful for the opportunity to catch up with his career.

R.I.P., Michael Gwynn

[wadsy]

Hi Cornershop, here he is as Hermes in Jason & The Argonauts!

untitled.png

[Gerald Lovell]

A skilful actor I'm always pleased to see: he could be mild and charming, but he also could have an edge to him. An offbeat role was as the "monster" in Hammer's The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958).

[markrgv]

As mentioned above, I also first knew him in the role of Lord Melbury in Fawlty Towers. Then discovered him in a few Hammer films, etc. I think his best film part (that i've seen) is in Village of the Damned.

[wellendcanons]

Michael Gwynn is a firm favourite of mine for his many ITC roles and as Lord Melbury in the Fawlty Towers episode A Touch Of Class.

Another great thread subject Cornershop.

wec

[cornershop15]

Many Thanks for your replies. I can't imagine Jason and the Argonauts having the same impact as it did when I was a child, if and when I see it again. The duelling skeletons and the 'giant' slowly rising from the water terrified me at the time. I can remember this being on a Sunday afternoon, on ITV, circa Mid-1970s, though I've yet to find the TVTimes for that week.

ITC publicity stills

Michael Gwynn as Martin Jeffroll, The Frightened Inn-Keeper, in The Saint (1965):

His daughter was played by Suzanne Neve.

And as "ex-convict" Mark Seldon in The Baron episode Something for a Rainy Day (1966):

This time Ann Lynn was his daughter! They were reunited, on screen anyway, nine years later in the series Spytrap.

Screencaps to follow but my next post will be a preview for one of Michael's lost TV appearances.

[wellendcanons]

I watched Michael's episode of The Baron at the beginning of the week for the first time and I'll be watching his episode of The Saint in the forthcoming week. I haven't seen it in a long time but it was always one of my favourite b&w episodes. Michael also appears in what is for me one of the very best Danger Man episodes called A Room In The Basement.

wec