Brian Glover

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brian Glover (April 2, 1934 – July 24, 1997) was a British actor, born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, United Kingdom.

Professionally, Brian Glover was a professional wrestler, teacher and finally a film, television and stage actor. He once said, "You play to your strengths in this game. My strength is as a bald-headed, rough-looking Yorkshireman."

[edit] Early Careers

Glover was a professional wrestler for many years, going under the ring name "Leon Arras the Man From Paris". He attended Barnsley Grammar School and the University of Sheffield before working as a school teacher (teaching English and French) and eventually became an actor.

[edit] Acting Career

His first acting job came playing Mr. Sugden, the comically overbearing sports teacher in Ken Loach's film Kes (a job he got when the film's writer, a teaching colleague, suggested him to the director). An untrained actor, Glover proved to be a skilled and flexible character actor. While his trademark bald head, stocky build, and gruff Yorkshire accent garnered him many roles as tough guys and criminals, he also played Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, had a recurring role in the classic sitcom Porridge, played Quilp in The Old Curiosity Shop, and lent his voice to a number of animated characters, including one of the "Tetley Tea People" in a long-running series of television advertisements. He also appeared in An American Werewolf in London, Alien³, and Leon the Pig Farmer.

His stage career included the 1973-74 season with Britain's Royal Shakespeare Company where, appropriately enough, his roles included Charles the wrestler in As You Like It. For the Royal National Theatre he appeared in The Mysteries, Saint Joan and Don Quixote. His performance in The Canterbury Tales led him to a number of roles in TV plays, shown as part of the Play for Today series. Glover played Lugg, the endearing rogue manservant to Albert Campion in the TV series Campion. He also took a role in the Doctor Who story Attack of the Cybermen in 1985. In 1991 he starred in the second episode of Bottom - "Gas" - as "Mr. Rottweiler".

Glover was also wrote over 20 plays and short films. He was married to Tara Glover. He developed a brain tumour and died in a London hospital on 1997-07-21.