Richard Pearson (actor)

Richard de Pearsall Pearson (1 August 1918 – 2 August 2011), an English character actor, was born and brought up in Monmouth. He was educated at Aymestrey Court, Worcester, and at Monmouth School, where his father taught French.

Notable films of his career included Brian Desmond Hurst's Scrooge (1951) as well as a brief appearance in John Schlesinger's Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and cameo roles in three films by Roman Polanski: Macbeth (1971), Tess (1979) and Pirates (1986). Pearson made his stage debut at age 18 at London's Collins's Music Hall, but did not make his film debut until the age of 32, when he played a Sergeant in the motion picture The Girl is Mine (1950). This was followed a year later by his performance as Mr Tupper in Scrooge.

In later years, he is perhaps best known for his role as Mole in Cosgrove Hall's The Wind in the Willows (1983), its subsequent television series, which led on from the original film, and its spin-off programme Oh, Mr. Toad, in both of which he starred alongside David Jason, Peter Sallis and Michael Hordern. He also appeared in episodes of One Foot in the Grave as Victor Meldrew's absent-minded brother, Alfred and the Men Behaving Badly episode "Three Girlfriends" as Gary's father Mr Strang. He played Mr. Pye in the 1985 TV movie Marple: The Moving Finger.

Richard Pearson fought in the Second World War with the 52nd (Lowland) Infantry Division. He was mentioned in dispatches and left the army with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. He married the actress Patricia Dickson (1927–2014) in 1949. They lived until the late 1950s in Nassau Street, in the Fitzrovia district of London, then in Beckenham, and latterly in Richmond upon Thames. Pearson had been suffering from myocardial degeneration and died peacefully on 2 August 2011, the morning after his 93rd birthday, survived by his wife and their two sons, one of whom, Patrick Pearson, is also an actor.