Torin Thatcher

Torin Thatcher (15 January 1905 - 4 March 1981) was a British actor born in Bombay, British India (now Mumbai, India), to British parents. He was an imposing, powerfully built figure noted for his flashy portrayals of screen villains.

He was educated in England at Bedford School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He worked as a schoolteacher before first appearing on the London stage in 1927 and then entering British films in 1934. He appeared in the 1937 Old Vic stage production of Hamlet, in which Laurence Olivier made his first appearance in the title role, opposite Vivien Leigh as Ophelia. During World War II he served with the Royal Artillery and achieved the rank of major.

He appeared in classic British films of the late 1930s and 1940s, including Major Barbara (1941) and Great Expectations (1946), in which he played Bentley Drummle. He moved to Hollywood in the 1950s. He was constantly in demand, invariably lending his looming figure and baleful countenance to sinister or stern roles in popular costume thrillers such as The Crimson Pirate (1952), Blackbeard the Pirate (1952), The Robe (1953) (as Richard Burton's disapproving father), The Black Shield of Falworth (1954), Helen of Troy (1956), Darby's Rangers (1958), and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958). He also appeared in the Marlon Brando - Trevor Howard 1962 remake of Mutiny on the Bounty.

He returned to the stage quite frequently, notably on Broadway, in such esteemed productions as Edward, My Son (1948), That Lady (1949) and Billy Budd (1951). In 1959, he portrayed Captain Keller in the award-winning play The Miracle Worker with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. All of these plays were filmed, but Thatcher did not appear in the movie versions.

Also a steady fixture on TV, he appeared in such made-for-TV films as the Jack Palance version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Brenda Starr. He also played the title role in a Philco Television Playhouse version of Othello and acted in a CBS production of Beyond This Place (1957).