Cast

Michael Balfour

Acting

Cast

Michael Balfour

Known for

Acting

Born

1918-02-11

From

Dover, Kent, England, UK

Died

1997-10-24

Also known as Michael S. Creighton-Balfour, Michael Creighton Balfour

Biography

Michael Creighton Balfour (11 February 1918 – 24 October 1997) was an English actor, working mainly in British films and TV, following his TV debut in the BBC's The Marvellous History of St Bernard, in 1938. He was a recognisable face, often in small character parts and supporting roles, in nearly two hundred films and TV shows, from the 1940s to the 1990s, often playing comical heavies or otherwise shady characters notable for their "loud" clothes, sometimes convincingly cast as an American. He worked for a roll call of film directors, including Tony Richardson, Pete Walker, Billy Wilder, Lewis Gilbert, Roman Polanski, Leslie Norman, Tim Burton, John Frankenheimer, François Truffaut, John Gilling, Stanley Donen, Ken Annakin, Cavalcanti, Lance Comfort, Terence Young, Gerald Thomas, Pasolini, John Paddy Carstairs, Terence Fisher, Val Guest, Frank Launder, John Huston, Basil Dearden and Howard Hawks. Balfour had parts in many popular TV shows of the era including Educated Evans, Mess Mates, Danger Man, The Avengers, Hancock's Half Hour, Dixon of Dock Green, Rogue's Gallery, Z-Cars, The Onedin Line, and the detective drama The Vise, playing Saber's assistant Barney O'Keefe. Balfour was also known as the passenger in a Jaguar XK120 car driven by actor Bonar Colleano when it crashed, killing Colleano. Balfour's injuries required him to have 98 stitches, but he was released from hospital in time to attend Colleano's funeral. As his screen career began to slow down in the late 1970s, Michael Balfour went on tour with European circuses, as a clown. He founded Circus Hazzard, and created his own clown character. His son later became a circus manager. As well as performing, Balfour was a dedicated painter and sculptor, and in later years turned increasingly to sculpture and the arts, even running his own gallery for a while. For his subjects, he frequently drew on his own family career as a circus clown

Michael Balfour

Michael Balfour

Biography

Batman

Fahrenheit 451

The Canterbury Tales

Venetian Bird

Barbados Quest

The Adventurers

Casanova

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

Sink the Bismarck!

Too Hot to Handle

Helter Skelter

The Krays

Three's Company

One Good Turn

The Holcroft Covenant

Resting Rough

Prelude to Fame

Kaleidoscope

Quatermass 2

The Sea Shall Not Have Them

Look Back in Anger

The Flesh and the Fiends

Candleshoe

The Delavine Affair

Moulin Rouge

Macbeth

I Was a Male War Bride

The Prisoner of Zenda

Carry On Constable

William Comes to Town

The Small Voice

Obsession

Joseph Andrews

Hot Ice

The Fast Lady

The Oblong Box

Just William's Luck

The Red Beret

Sleeping Car to Trieste

Don't Ever Leave Me

The Rescue Squad

The Reluctant Bride

Park Plaza 605

Top Secret

Melody Club

Fiend Without a Face

Her Favourite Husband

Genevieve

Press for Time

Strangler's Web

Johnny on the Run

The Big Money

Echo of Diana

3 Steps to the Gallows

The Ship That Couldn't Stop

All Coppers Are...

Scarlet Web

Stop Press Girl

Meet Mr. Callaghan

No Orchids for Miss Blandish

A Stitch in Time

Surprise Package

Man of Violence

A Case For P.C. 49

Woman Hater

Albert R.N.

Pit of Darkness

Revenge of Billy the Kid

Recoil

The Steel Bayonet

The Stick Up

River Beat

Delayed Action

Black 13

Man from Tangier

The Secret of the Forest

Small Town Story