Films starring Alastair Sim

Alastair Sim left an unrivalled legacy of screen gems. Raised in Edinburgh, Sim worked as an elocution and drama lecturer at the University of Edinburgh before making his debut on the London stage in 1930. However, acting wasn't his first intention, as he once revealed: 'As I passed imperceptibly from a beautiful child to a strong and handsome l... show more >

Alastair Sim left an unrivalled legacy of screen gems. Raised in Edinburgh, Sim worked as an elocution and drama lecturer at the University of Edinburgh before making his debut on the London stage in 1930. However, acting wasn't his first intention, as he once revealed: 'As I passed imperceptibly from a beautiful child to a strong and handsome lad, I wanted more than anything else in the world to be, of all things, a hypnotist. I practiced on gentle dogs.'

But there was something mesmerising about Sim's lugubrious screen presence and he rapidly became one of Britain's best-loved stars. Initially, he was seen in supporting roles, such as the shyster lawyer trying to dupe George Formby out of his inheritance in Monty Banks's frantic farce, Keep Your Seats, Please (1936). But, even though he played the fool in Anthony Asquith's wartime thriller, Cottage to Let (1941), the plot twist revealed Sim's true purpose and he further demonstrated that he could handle more sombre material in Sidney Gilliat's Waterloo Road (1944) and Green for Danger (1946), in which he respectively played a doctor who tries to stop AWOL soldier John Mills from ruining his life and an inspector investigating a series of murders at a wartime hospital.

Indeed, while Sim was primarily considered a light actor, there was always an edge to his characterisations, even in seemingly cosy comedies. He excelled as the adventure writer in Charles Crichton's Ealing romp Hue and Cry (1947), the maverick father helping Jane Wyman expose Marlene Dietrich's role in a murder in Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950), the author needing to be imprisoned to inherit a bequest in Mario Zampi's Laughter in Paradise (1951) and the dastardly assassin in Robert Day's The Green Man (1956).

He was also an inveterate scene-stealer, whether playing the mischievous lifesmanship guru in Robert Hamer's School for Scoundrels (1960) or the Anglican bishop in Peter Medak's The Ruling Class (1972), who officiates with undisguised dismay as actress Carolyn Seymour marries Peter O'Toole's paranoid schizophrenic earl, who's convinced he's Jesus Christ.

But, for many, Sim will be most fondly remembered as the headmaster of Nutbourne College forcibly sharing premises with Margaret Rutherford's St Swithin's School for Girls in Frank Launder's The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), and as Miss Millicent Fritton in the same director's The Belles of St Trinian's (1954) and its sequel, Blue Murder at St Trinian's (1957). < show less