Harold Bennett

Bennett was born in Hastings, Sussex. After leaving school at the age of twelve, in his early life he toured America as a clown with a circus, and later taught English at the Working Men's College in London. During World War I he served as a courier, initially on horseback, then on motorcycle. After the war he took up acting and eventually worked as stage producer in the Tower Theatre, London. He subsequently pursued a career as a draughtsman for an electric company, only taking up his acting career again following retirement.

Harold Bennett died of a heart attack on 11 September 1981, aged 82. His wife predeceased him in the 1930s; he was survived by their three children. One of his children, John, was also an actor.

He played the recurring character Mr (Sidney) Bluett in Dad's Army from 1969 to 1977, but it was as Young Mr Grace, the ancient, amiably callous owner of Grace Brothers department store in British sitcom Are You Being Served? that he achieved his greatest fame. His last appearance in Are You Being Served? aired some three months after his death, having been recorded earlier in the year.

Bennett also played the role of the aged Archdeacon Pulteney in The Stalls of Barchester, the BBC A Ghost Story for Christmas broadcast 24 December 1971 and adapted from M.R. James's story of the same title. Bennett also appeared in Vote, Vote, Vote for Nigel Barton (1965), and in several films, including as a photographer in Games That Lovers Play (1971) and as the aged odd-job man Gasper in The Ups and Downs of a Handyman (1975).

On the stage, he appeared in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of London Assurance (1972) as Martin, and in an Open University production of Chekhov's The Three Sisters.

Film

Television