George Innes

Innes was born in Stepney, East London, and began his career with the National Theatre of Great Britain under Laurence Olivier. He trained at Toynbee Hall and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, where he received the Shakespeare Cup for excellence. He later appeared in stage productions including The Dream of Peter Mann and other National Theatre performances. His final year of study and training was at the Bristol Old Vic School. He worked with Dunlop again in The Pantomime at the Bristol Old Vic, before a season at Nottingham Playhouse with Dunlop and John Neville.

Other theatre credits include working for Royal Court Theatre production company in Chips with Everything, which played in the West End and on Broadway. He appeared in Othello (understudying Frank Finlay's Iago) with Olivier at the National Theatre at Chichester and The Old Vic. Other performances in this period include roles in Dutch Courtesan, Mother Courage, Hobson's Choice, and The Master Builder. At the National Theatre at South Bank, he appeared in Tom Stoppard's Jumpers, Bedroom Farce (directed by Peter Hall, transferring to the West End), and The Vortex at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles, (with Bob Ackerman directing). In 1993-94 he appeared in The Rise and Fall of Little Voice with the Steppenwolf Theatre Company, with Simon Curtis directing in Chicago, a production which appeared on Broadway. Returning to London, he performed at the Southwark Playhouse in Rosmersholm (1997) and Riders to the Sea (2005).

In 2009 he appeared off-Broadway in The Lodger at the Workshop Theatre (Harris Yulin directing). There he developed his one-man show called Tribute, based on the Ages of Man by Sir John Gielgud. It was also performed at The Players, a theatrical club in New York City. The show played during the August 2009 Edinburgh Fringe Festival to excellent reviews. In March 2010, he performed Tribute at the Barron's Court Pub Theatre in London, receiving these reviews: "... the whole show centres around a superb talent: not Gielgud's but that of George Innes. The veteran performer has a marvellously warming presence with a deep velvet voice that could make a line from Avenue Q sound profound ... Tribute really is a display of extraordinary talent." He performed the show at the Workshop Theatre in New York, touring westward to California.

Innes's film career includes:

• Billy Liar (1963, John Schlesinger)
• Charlie Bubbles (1968, Albert Finney)
• Before Winter Comes (1968, J. Lee Thompson)
• The Italian Job (1969, Peter Collinson)
• The Last Valley (1971, James Clavell)
• Gumshoe (1971, Stephen Frears)
• Pope Joan (1972, Michael Anderson)
• Diamonds on Wheels (1973, Jerome Courtland)
• A Bridge Too Far (1977, Richard Attenborough)
• Quadrophenia (1979, Franc Roddam)
• Shōgun (1980, Jerry London)
• Ivanhoe (1982, Douglas Camfield)
• Ordeal by Innocence (1984, Desmond Davis)
• Morons from Outer Space (1985, Mike Hodges).

His recent films include:

• Shiner (2000, directed by John Irvin),
• The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (2001, directed by Stephen Whittaker),
• Last Orders (2001, directed by Fred Schepisi),
• Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003, directed by Peter Weir),
• Things To Do Before You're 30 (2005, directed by Simon Shore),
• Stardust (2007, directed by Matthew Vaughn)
• Shekhar Kapur directed Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007).

Notable television appearances include:

• Upstairs, Downstairs
• Minder
• Budgie
• New Scotland Yard
• Danger UXB
• I, Claudius
• Open All Hours
• Rumpole of the Bailey
• Hill Street Blues
• Magnum, P.I.
• MASH*