Raymond Mason, Acting - KorPlix:Korean Person Archives

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Raymond Mason
Acting

Raymond Mason
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1924-04-17,Great Bridge, Staffordshire, England, UK
Gender
Male
Biography
During Raymond Mason’s 20 years of acting in the ITV soap opera Crossroads, he played five different roles. “I don’t think anyone ever noticed,” he said, “and I don’t put it down to versatility.” For trained actors in the days when there was just a handful of drama colleges and fewer vocational courses, the pool of talent was by definition smaller. Many performers found themselves appearing more than once in the same programmes. For Raymond, the roles that he played on British television over 40-odd years numbered more than 1,000, and he appeared in scores of commercials at home and overseas. One of the reasons for Raymond’s success was that he was comfortable in a supporting role and, crucially, adept at not stealing a scene. Through a combination of timing and practised self-effacement he allowed the main star, or joke, to shine. Modest about taking the credit, he effectively enabled the skit. In the late 1960s and 1970s, when comedy was spread across just three TV channels, Raymond appeared in Saturday-night programmes including The Morecambe & Wise Show — he described the double act as “a joy”, The Two Ronnies and alongside Frankie Howerd, Les Dawson and the like. In a 1979 episode of Fawlty Towers called The Kipper and the Corpse, his character attempts to retrieve his hat while Basil is trying to hide the body of a deceased guest. John Cleese later described him as “one of my favourite actors”. The middle child between an older and a younger sister, Raymond was born in 1924 in Great Bridge, Staffordshire, and brought up in Tettenhall near Wolverhampton. His exposure to light entertainment started at an early age as his father, George, who had fought in the First World War, played the piano and organ, wrote his own compositions and was a local bandleader. After shutting up the fish and chip shop in Wolverhampton that he owned with his wife, Elizabeth, George would stuff a keyboard glockenspiel into his bike’s front carrier and set off

Filmography

6

Brannigan
1975-03-21

The Loving Lesson

0

The Loving Lesson
1971-08-31

0

Piano Lessons
1976-08-08

6.577

Bartleby
1970-10-30

6.192

Loophole
1981-06-25

Smith and Jones: The Home-Made Xmas Video

8.25

Smith and Jones: The Home-Made Xmas Video
1987-12-23

6.2

Hamlet
1980-05-25

Cries from a Watchtower

0

Cries from a Watchtower
1979-10-18

0

John David
1982-11-23

0

A Photograph
1977-03-22

Kiss Me and Die

6

Kiss Me and Die
1974-02-09

6.231

Young Winston
1972-07-20

7

The Wild Duck
1971-03-21

Alice Through the Looking Glass

6.333

Alice Through the Looking Glass
1973-12-25

5.667

Crown Court
1972-10-11

8.286

Fawlty Towers
1975-09-19

0

Rita Rudner
1990-09-18

6.333

Muck and Brass
1982-01-12

6

Wycliffe
1994-07-24

6.5

Terry and June
1979-10-24

7.667

The Good Life
1975-04-04

Enemy at the Door

8.2

Enemy at the Door
1978-01-28

8.1

House of Cards
1990-11-18

The Darling Buds of May

7.9

The Darling Buds of May
1991-04-07

7.167

Budgie
1971-04-09

BBC Play of the Month

5.25

BBC Play of the Month
1965-10-19

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

0

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
1967-01-15

Nicholas Nickleby

7

Nicholas Nickleby
1977-03-27

7

The Chief
1990-04-20

0

Hunters Walk
1973-06-04

Sense and Sensibility

6.923

Sense and Sensibility
1981-02-01

The Afternoon Play

7

The Afternoon Play
2003-01-27

7.2

Theatre 625
1964-05-03

Churchill's People

5

Churchill's People
1974-12-30

Mystery and Imagination

5.8

Mystery and Imagination
1966-01-29

7

Centre Play
1973-07-19

0

Holly
1972-09-01

The Legend of King Arthur

7.5

The Legend of King Arthur
1979-10-07