Michael Balfour

Acting · 0.8 popularity

Age

108

Movies

Born: February 11, 1918 – October 24, 1997
From: Dover, Kent, England, UK

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

Works

96 films

Batman

19897.2

Fahrenheit 451

19667.1

The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes

19706.8

The Canterbury Tales

19726.1

The Krays

19906.0

Sink the Bismarck!

19606.8

Venetian Bird

19526.2

Candleshoe

19776.9

The Holcroft Covenant

19855.5

Macbeth

19717.1

Kaleidoscope

19665.3

Moulin Rouge

19526.6

Quatermass 2

19576.4

Casanova

19874.1

Fiend Without a Face

19586.1

Carry On Constable

19606.3

I Was a Male War Bride

19497.0

Park Plaza 605

19534.7

The Adventurers

19704.7

The Red Beret

19536.7

The Oblong Box

19695.8

The Prisoner of Zenda

19795.7

One Good Turn

19556.2

Barbados Quest

19555.1

No Orchids for Miss Blandish

19486.1

The Fast Lady

19625.8

Look Back in Anger

19596.7

Resting Rough

19797.0

The Sea Shall Not Have Them

19547.3

Hot Ice

19537.0

Too Hot to Handle

19604.7

The Delavine Affair

19555.5

Three's Company

19539.0

The Flesh and the Fiends

19606.6

Obsession

19496.8

Helter Skelter

19496.4

The Rescue Squad

19636.0

Genevieve

19536.7

Man from Tangier

19575.1

A Stitch in Time

19637.4

The Monster of Highgate Ponds

19616.7

Meet Mr. Callaghan

19546.5

Joseph Andrews

19775.2

River Beat

19546.3

Press for Time

19665.9

Just William's Luck

19477.8

The Ship That Couldn't Stop

1961

Prelude to Fame

19506.8

The Steel Bayonet

19585.7

Top Secret

19528.0

Surprise Package

19606.6

Don't Ever Leave Me

19497.7

Strangler's Web

19657.7

Albert R.N.

19537.3

Woman Hater

19487.7

Breakaway

19565.5

Sleeping Car to Trieste

19486.8

Scarlet Web

19545.7

Impulse

19544.6

Small Town Story

19535.9

Her Favourite Husband

19506.0

The Big Money

19587.0

The Small Voice

19486.4

Black 13

19537.0

The Reluctant Bride

19556.3

The Secret of the Forest

195610.0

Melody Club

19497.3

Delayed Action

19545.8

Revenge of Billy the Kid

19924.9

Johnny on the Run

19538.3

The Quiet Woman

19516.2

The Stick Up

19775.6

Pit of Darkness

19616.2

Five Have a Mystery to Solve

19647.0

Recoil

19535.8

3 Steps to the Gallows

19536.7

Echo of Diana

19635.8

Love in Pawn

19537.2

The Steel Key

19536.5

William Comes to Town

19489.0

A Case For P.C. 49

19517.0

13 East Street

19526.0

Man of Violence

19705.5

She Always Gets Their Man

19626.0

It's a Great Day

19556.4

Stop Press Girl

19495.9

All Coppers Are...

19727.1

Hoverbug

19699.0

Devil's Point

19547.0

Help Yourself

1950

Light Fingers

19579.0

The Copter Kids

197610.0

Secret Venture

19556.5

Design for Loving

19626.7

The Diamond Wizard

19545.9

Scrapbook for 1933

19506.0