JamesM

Ronald Leigh-Hunt passed away on Sep 12th 2005. He played Asst Chief Constable Harrison in "Z Cars" and had a leading role in the British horror film "The Hand" (1960) but otherwise would have small supporting roles in films such as "Very Important Person", "Sink the Bismarck!", "Khartoum", "The League of Gentleman" (1960, playing the police superintrndent who confirms that the game is up), "Oscar Wilde", "The Message" and "The Omen".

julian_craster

From Roger

The Times Obituary
September 24, 2005

Ronald Leigh-Hunt
October 5, 1916 - September 12, 2005
Elegant supporting actor on film and television

A SMOOTH supporting actor, Ronald Leigh-Hunt was one of the most familiar
faces of postwar British cinema. He made more than 50 films, many of them
B-movie thrillers in which he was usually cast as a doctor or a policeman,
and on television he was best known for roles as King Arthur in The
Adventures of Sir Lancelot (1956) and as Colonel Buchan in the long-running
children’s series Freewheelers (1968).
Later in his career Leigh-Hunt appeared in big-budget international films
such as Le Mans (1971), with Steve McQueen, The Message (1976), with Anthony
Quinn, and The Omen (1976), with Gregory Peck.

Leigh-Hunt was born in London and began acting in repertory companies before
making his film debut, auspiciously as a doctor, in the thriller Blackout
(1950), opposite Dinah Sheridan. Rarely out of work throughout the 1950s and
1960s, Leigh-Hunt played supporting roles in a string of films as well as
appearing in television series such as The Saint, Dixon of Dock Green, The
Avengers and Z Cars.

His break came when he was cast as King Arthur in the ITV production, The
Adventures of Sir Lancelot, with William Russell as Lancelot, and he went on
to cameo appearances in The League of Gentlemen (1959), Oscar Wilde (1960)
and Khartoum (1966), in which he played Lord Northbrook.

Freewheelers ran for 104 episodes from 1968. An adventure series for older
children, the show featured a teenage trio used by Colonel Buchan to defeat
villains, often the neo-Nazi Von Gelb, played by Geoffrey Toone. Leigh-Hunt
later said: “It was one of my favourite roles. I was in every episode.”

Leigh-Hunt frequently returned to the stage and in 1966 he played the
showman Florenz Ziegfeld opposite Barbra Streisand as Fanny Brice in the
West End production of the musical Funny Girl. The production won several
awards, but it was confined to 112 performances after the star fell
pregnant.

Leigh-Hunt’s most recent television work included playing General Pagel in
the American mini-series Ike (1979), opposite Robert Duvall, and
Frankenstein (1992), with John Mills.

Elegantly dressed on screen and off, he was known in theatrical circles for
his glorious voice and impeccable manners.

Ronald Leigh-Hunt, actor, was born on October 5, 1916. He died on September
12, 2005, aged 88.