George Cole 1925-2015 скачать в хорошем качестве

George Cole 1925-2015

George Edward Cole OBE (22 April 1925 – 5 August 2015) was an English film and television actor whose career spanned more than 70 years in show business. He was known for playing Arthur Daley in the long-running ITV drama show Minder, and Flash Harry in the early St Trinian's films. Cole was born in Tooting, South West London, and attended secondary school in nearby Morden. Cole was given up for adoption at ten days old and adopted by George and Florence Cole, Tooting council employee and cleaner respectively. He left school at 14 to be a butcher's boy, and an ambition to join the Merchant Navy, but landed a part in a touring musical, and chose acting as a career. At age 15 he was cast in the film Cottage to Let (1941), where he starred opposite Scottish actor Alastair Sim. Sim liked Cole, and agreed with his family to take in Cole and his adoptive mother to their home. Acting as his mentor, Sim helped Cole lose his Cockney accent and he stayed with the Sim family until he was 27. Cole later attributed his career success to Sim, with whom he appeared in a total of 11 films, ending with a television film of The Anatomist (1956). Cole also acted opposite Laurence Olivier in The Demi-Paradise (1943) and Olivier's film version of Henry V (1944), and became the last surviving cast member. His career was interrupted by his National service in the Royal Air Force from 1944 to 1947, where he was temporarily a radio operator. Returning to his acting career post National service, he became familiar to audiences in British comedy films in the 1950s. Cole appeared with Sim in Scrooge (as the young Scrooge) in 1951, but his best known film role was as "Flash Harry" in the St Trinian's films (two of which also star Sim). Cole appeared as a guest star in the Gerry Anderson produced television series UFO in the episode "Flight Path" (1971). He also made a guest appearance as Mr Downs, a bank manager, in a 1978 episode of the sitcom The Good Life, performed in the presence of the Queen. His best remembered television role was as the crooked used-car dealer Arthur Daley in the Thames Television series Minder which he played from 1979 to the show's conclusion in 1994. Cole died at the age of 90 on 5 August 2015 at the Royal Berkshire Hospital after a short illness.