Michael Ripper

Michael Ripper
Born	27 January 1913(1913-01-27) Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Died	28 June 2000(2000-06-28) (aged 87)
Occupation	actor
Spouse	Catherine Finn (div.)

Michael Ripper (27 January 1913 – 28 June 2000) was an English character actor born in Portsmouth.

He began his film career in quota quickies in the 1930s and until the late 1950s was virtually unknown; he was seldom credited. He played one of the two murderers in Richard III. Ripper became a mainstay in Hammer Film Productions beginning with X the Unknown in 1956. He subsequently played a variety of coachmen, peasants, tavern keepers, pirates and sidekicks in such films as The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Mummy (1959), Brides of Dracula (1960), The Camp on Blood Island (1958), Captain Clegg (1962), The Scarlet Blade (1963), The Mummy's Shroud (1967), and Plague of the Zombies (1966). Occasionally he was disguised almost beyond recognition, yet his raspy voice remained unmistakable. Some of his parts were little better than glorified bits (as in The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb), but his penultimate role for Hammer Films was a significant supporting part as a landlord in Scars of Dracula in 1970. (His very last Hammer role was as a railway worker in the atypical comedy That's Your Funeral two years later.) Although the Hammer horrors tend to be associated with stars such as Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, it is Ripper who holds the honour of having more Hammer film appearances than any other actor.

He is also well remembered for his role as the liftman in four of the St. Trinian's comedies, and on television for his role as Thomas the chauffeur in the BBC comedy Butterflies (1978–83) and as Burke, one of the two criminals in the youth television series Freewheelers (1968–71). His other TV roles include Phunkey in The Pickwick Papers (1985) and the Drones Porter in Jeeves and Wooster (1990–91).

Ripper was divorced from actress Catherine Finn.

Selected filmography

Easy Riches (1938) Captain Boycott (1947) Oliver Twist (1948) Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951) Derby Day (1952) Folly to Be Wise (1953) Appointment in London (1953) Blood Orange (1953) The Rainbow Jacket (1954) The Belles of St Trinian's (1954) Richard III (1955) Secret Venture (1955) 1984 (1956) Yield to the Night (1956) Reach for the Sky (1956) The Green Man (1956) The Steel Bayonet (1957) Woman in a Dressing Gown (1957) These Dangerous Years (1957) Not Wanted on Voyage (1957) The One That Got Away (1957) The Naked Truth (1957) Blue Murder at St Trinian's (1957) The Camp on Blood Island (1958) Up the Creek (1958) The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958) Further Up the Creek (1958) Girls at Sea (1958) I Only Arsked! (1958)

Quatermass and the Pit (TV, 1959) The Mummy (1959) The Ugly Duckling (1959) Jackpot (1960) Sink the Bismarck! (1960) Dead Lucky (1960) The Brides of Dracula (1960) Not a Hope in Hell (1960) A Circle of Deception (1960) The Pure Hell of St Trinian's (1960) The Curse of the Werewolf (1961) A Prize of Arms (1962) Out of the Fog (1962) The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (1964) The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) Where the Bullets Fly (1966) The Plague of the Zombies (1966) The Reptile (1966) The Great St Trinian's Train Robbery (1966) The Mummy's Shroud (1967) Inspector Clouseau (1968) Journey Into Darkness (1968) The Lost Continent (1968) Scars of Dracula (1970) Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970) No Sex Please, We're British (1973) The Creeping Flesh (1973) Legend of the Werewolf (1975) The Sweeney (1975) The Prince and the Pauper (1977) Danger on Dartmoor (1980)

External links

• Michael Ripper at the Internet Movie Database

Persondata
Name	Ripper, Michael
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	27 January 1913
Place of birth	Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Date of death	28 June 2000
Place of death