Robertson Hare

Robertson Hare

Born: December 16, 1891
Died: January 25, 1979
in Islington, London, England
John Robertson Hare, OBE (17 December 1891 – 25 January 1979) was an English actor, who came to fame in the Aldwych farces. He is remembered by modern audiences for his performances as the Archdeacon in the popular BBC sitcom, All Gas and Gaiters.

Short in stature and of unheroic appearance, Hare made his stage career in character roles. From his early days as an actor he was cast as older men. One of his favourite parts, which he played in the provinces before achieving West End success, was "Grumpy", a retired lawyer, in which he toured before the First World War.

After war service in the army, Hare got his big break. He was cast in a long-running farce with Ralph Lynn and Tom Walls. His meek and put-upon character was repeated in various incarnations in the eleven Aldwych farces presented by Walls between 1923 and 1933. He also appeared in film versions of most of the farces. After the Aldwych series came to an end, Hare continued to be cast in similar roles in new plays by Ben Travers and many others.

Occasionally Hare took a break from farce, appearing in revue with Benny Hill and in a musical with Frankie Howerd. His final major role was on television in the late 1960s, as the Archdeacon of St Ogg's in the BBC comedy series All Gas and Gaiters.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Movies for Robertson Hare...

Raising the Roof
Title: Raising the Roof
Released: September 1, 1972
Type: Movie
Children's Film Foundation comedy.
bee
Salt & Pepper
Title: Salt & Pepper
Character: Dove
Released: July 3, 1968
Type: Movie
After discovering the body of a murdered female agent in their trendy Soho, London nightclub, groovy owners Charles Salt and Christopher Pepper partake in a fumbling investigation and uncover an evil plot to overthrow the government. Can our cool, yet inept duo stop the bad guys in time?
bee
Title: Ooh La La!
Released: April 6, 1968
Type: TV
Series based on the short French farces written by Georges Feydeau, Eugène Labiche, Marc Michel and Sacha Guitry. All of them include mistaken identities and impeccable timing.
bee
Title: All Gas and Gaiters
Released: May 17, 1966
Type: TV
All Gas and Gaiters is a British television ecclesiastical sitcom which aired on BBC1 from 1966 to 1971. It was written by Pauline Devaney and Edwin Apps, a husband-and-wife team who used the pseudonym of "John Wraith" when writing the pilot. All Gas and Gaiters was also broadcast on BBC Radio from 1971 to 1972.
bee
Hotel Paradiso
Title: Hotel Paradiso
Character: The Duke
Released: March 1, 1966
Type: Movie
Monsieur Feydeau has writer's block, and he needs a new play. But he takes an opportunity to observe the upper class of 1900 Paris - Monsieur Boniface with a domineering wife, and the next-door neglectful husband Henri with a beautiful but ignored wife, Marcelle. Henri traces architectural anomalies (most ghost sounds are drains) and plans a night at the Hotel Paradiso, but this hotel is the assignation spot of Marcelle and Boniface. One wife, two husbands, a nephew, and the perky Boniface maid, all at this 'by the hour' hotel and consummation of the affair is, to say the least, severely compromised (not the least by a police raid). All of this is under Feydeau's eye, and his play is the 'success fou' of the next season.
bee
Crooks Anonymous
Title: Crooks Anonymous
Character: Grimsdale
Released: March 31, 1962
Type: Movie
A former burglar trying to go straight joins a rehabilitation scheme using much the same methods as AA. Through the process, he takes work as a department store Santa, where the endless parade of goods and money, not to mention the pretty young shop hands have him like a moth to a flame in no time flat.
bee
The Young Ones
Title: The Young Ones
Character: Chauffeur
Released: December 19, 1961
Type: Movie
Nicky and his friends find that their youth club is in danger of being flattened to make way for a new office block unless they can come up with £1500 to pay the new owner, the ruthless property tycoon Hamilton Black. To help raise the cash, Nicky records a song and his friends broadcast it via a pirate radio station, touting him as "The Mystery Singer" - the plan works and interest in their up and coming show is heightened by this new but unknown heart-throb. But Nicky has an even bigger secret and one that he cannot share, even with his girlfriend Toni... Hamilton Black is his father.
bee
Out of the Shadow
Title: Out of the Shadow
Character: Ronald Fortescue
Released: June 1, 1961
Type: Movie
A reporter learns that his brother, a student, has committed suicide. Unconvinced, he begins his own investigation when the police dismiss his suspicions. Could a killer be on the loose in Cambridge?
bee
Seven Keys
Title: Seven Keys
Character: Mr. Piggott
Released: February 1, 1961
Type: Movie
Alan Dobie plays a convict who is bequeathed a set of seven keys by a fellow prisoner. After discovering that the deceased was an embezzler who stole £20,000 that was never recovered; he sets out to find the cash after finishing the last three months of his sentence. However he must first solve the mystery of which locks the keys fit, and run the gauntlet of the police and a number of gangsters who are after him and the money.
bee
Three Men in a Boat
Title: Three Men in a Boat
Character: Photographer
Released: December 23, 1956
Type: Movie
Three London gentlemen take a vacation rowing down the Thames, encountering various mishaps and misadventures along the way.
bee
Our Girl Friday
Title: Our Girl Friday
Character: Professor Gibble
Released: December 1, 1953
Type: Movie
Rich Sadie Patch is marooned on a desert island after an emergency on her cruise-ship. With her are Irish stoker Pat, prickly young Jimmy Carrol, and bald and bookish Professor Gibble. All fancy their chances.
bee
The Magic Box
Title: The Magic Box
Character: Sitter in Bath Studio
Released: January 1, 1952
Type: Movie
Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once very different. As young and handsome William Green he changed his name to include his first wife's so that it sounded more impressive for the photographic portrait work he was so good at. But he was also an inventor and his search for a way to project moving pictures became an obsession that ultimately changed the life of all those he loved.
bee
One Wild Oat
Title: One Wild Oat
Character: Humphrey Proudfoot
Released: May 16, 1951
Type: Movie
A lawyer's plan to break up his daughter's budding romance backfires when the boyfriend's father becomes involved.
bee
Things Happen at Night
Title: Things Happen at Night
Character: Vincent Ebury
Released: November 3, 1948
Type: Movie
A young girl finds herself possessed by the spirit of a mischievous demon.
bee
He Snoops to Conquer
Title: He Snoops to Conquer
Character: Sir Timothy Strawbridge
Released: December 12, 1944
Type: Movie
George Gribble is tea-boy at Tangleton town council, he gets ravelled up in the councillors money-grubbing machinations concerning compiling and then cooking the results of a government sponsored housing survey.
bee
Women Aren't Angels
Title: Women Aren't Angels
Character: Wilmer Popday
Released: January 18, 1943
Type: Movie
Alfred Bandle and Wilmer Popday are partners in business and, somewhat timorously on Popday's part, in pleasure. When their wives join the A.T.S., the men are left unattended and dangerously bored. The trouble starts when Bandle is late for an end-of-leave party after giving a girlfriend a lift; Popday promises the wives he ll restrain his wayward friend when they return to duty, but Bandle evidently thinks otherwise.
bee
Banana Ridge
Title: Banana Ridge
Character: Willoughby Pink
Released: April 20, 1942
Type: Movie
When Susie Long appears, together with her 20 year old son, Pink and Pound are thrown into confusion that one of them could be his father.
bee
Yesterday Is Over Your Shoulder
Title: Yesterday Is Over Your Shoulder
Character: Mr Anyman
Released: May 5, 1940
Type: Movie
A wartime short encouraging workers to join free, government-organised engineering training schemes.
bee
So This Is London
Title: So This Is London
Character: Henry Honeycutt
Released: March 1, 1939
Type: Movie
American (Churchill) in London dislikes England until his daughter (Lehmann) falls for the son (Granger) of the Lord (Drayton) with whom he wants to conclude a business deal.
bee
A Spot of Bother
Title: A Spot of Bother
Character: Dear Mr. Binky Rudd
Released: January 1, 1938
Type: Movie
Skulduggery is on the menu after a bishop hands over a cathedral’s rebuilding fund to a shady businessman. The bishop’s secretary is entrusted with overseeing the investment, but is soon out of his depth as the money is swept up in a brandy and silk underwear smuggling racket.
bee
Aren't Men Beasts!
Title: Aren't Men Beasts!
Character: Herbert Holly
Released: January 19, 1937
Type: Movie
Two businessmen have the shock of their lives when a woman appears out of their past bearing a 23 year old son - and one of them may be the father!
bee
O.H.M.S.
Title: O.H.M.S.
Released: January 1, 1937
Type: Movie
American racketeer Jimmie Dean travels to England, where he assumes the identity of a Canadian whom he has been falsely accused of murdering. Jimmie is then forced to join the British army in the dead man's place. He falls in love with the Canadian's childhood playmate, Sally Briggs, and becomes a hero after saving an isolated English colony in China.
bee
Jack of All Trades
Title: Jack of All Trades
Character: Lionel Fitch
Released: December 30, 1936
Type: Movie
In this he's on the dole, hungry and ready to do any job but quickly light-heartedly scams his way into society and a highly regarded position at a bank next to the beleaguered Robertson Hare. Here he invents a fraudulent business plan (Merrivale - you remember it surely?), the manager and chairman and another finance company are suck(er)ed in and it all snowballs from there. With of course a love interest as a dynamo.
bee
Pot Luck
Title: Pot Luck
Released: April 1, 1936
Type: Movie
A retired Scotland Yard detective, Patrick Fitzpatrick (Tom Walls) comes back to take one final case, tracking down a missing vase which has been stolen by a gang of thieves specialising in taking art treasures. His investigation takes him to the home of the innocent Mr Pye (Robertson Hare), whose house has been used by the crooks to hide their proceeds.
bee
Foreign Affaires
Title: Foreign Affaires
Character: Mr. Hardy Hornett
Released: November 21, 1935
Type: Movie
An ageing aristocrat schemes to secure his dwindling finances by any means - fair or foul!
bee
Stormy Weather
Title: Stormy Weather
Released: August 1, 1935
Type: Movie
Sir Duncan Craggs retires from the Colonial Service and returns to London with his new French wife. The couple are devoted to each other, but continually flirt with other people. Sir Duncan is appointed to the board of clothing retail chain. On his tour of inspection, he encounters a successful store run by the efficient Mr. Bullock. By contrast, a neighbouring shop is filled with unhelpful staff overseen by an incompetent and lazy manager, Raymond Penny, who is more interested in horseracing than running his shop. Craggs is unimpressed by Penny and summons him to a meeting in London. Both Bullock and his domineering wife travel up to London as well, fearing that Penny will tell Craggs malicious stories about them.
bee
Fighting Stock
Title: Fighting Stock
Character: Duck
Released: April 9, 1935
Type: Movie
The Aldwych Theater farceurs are at it again in Fighting Stock. The punning title refers to a well-stocked rural fishing stream, which sparks a battle royale between two rival groups of fishermen. Brigadier-General Sir Donald Rowley (Tom Walls) gets involved in the fray when he rents a country cottage with his nephew Sydney (Ralph Lynn). While the nephew pitches woo at the local maidens, General Rowley adopts military tactics to reclaim the stream from village squire Duck (J. Robertson Hare).
bee
Oh, Daddy!
Title: Oh, Daddy!
Character: Rupert Boddy
Released: February 8, 1935
Type: Movie
Member of a village Purity League branch find things much livelier on a trip to London.
bee
Car of Dreams
Title: Car of Dreams
Character: Henry Butterworth
Released: January 9, 1935
Type: Movie
Produced by the highly acclaimed Michael Balcon, the story revolves around Robert, the son of the owner of a musical instrument factory. He is in love with Vera, one of the factory workers, who is unaware of his position. So when she jokes one day that she would love a Rolls-Royce, Robert makes sure that she gets one. Then he decides to raise her salary out of all proportion to hint at who he is...
bee
Dirty Work
Title: Dirty Work
Character: Clement Peck
Released: December 7, 1934
Type: Movie
Staff in a jewellery store hatch a plan to catch a thief.
bee
A Cup of Kindness
Title: A Cup of Kindness
Character: Ernest Ramsbottom
Released: May 7, 1934
Type: Movie
A tale of two feuding families whose offspring cause uproar when they announce their marital plans.
bee
Turkey Time
Title: Turkey Time
Character: Edwin Stoatt
Released: December 1, 1933
Type: Movie
A group of guests come to stay with the Stoatt family in the seaside town of Eden Bay for Christmas. They soon become involved with an impoverished concert performer whose innocent presence in the house leads to a series of misunderstandings.
bee
A Cuckoo in the Nest
Title: A Cuckoo in the Nest
Character: Rev. Sloley Jones
Released: November 11, 1933
Type: Movie
A crowded inn means that a man and a woman must share the same room for a night. One problem is that they are both married - to other people. The other problem is that they used to be engaged to each other.
bee
Friday the Thirteenth
Title: Friday the Thirteenth
Character: Ralph Lightfoot
Released: November 1, 1933
Type: Movie
It is pouring with rain at one minute to midnight on Friday the thirteenth, and the driver of a London bus is peering through his blurred windscreen as his vehicle sails down an empty road. Suddenly, lightning strikes, and a vast crane above topples into the path of the oncoming bus... Then Big Ben begins to wind backwards. Time recedes. And we discover the lives of all the passengers and the events that brought them to that late-night bus journey, from the con-man with a hundred-pound cheque to the businessman's distraught and elderly wife. Time flows on, inevitably, to the crash -- and past it, as some live and some die.
bee
It's a Boy
Title: It's a Boy
Character: Allister
Released: June 6, 1933
Type: Movie
"It's a Boy" stars Horton as Dudley Leake, who is betrothed to Mary Bogle (the very pretty Wendy Barrie). Shortly before the wedding, Dudley blurts a confession to his friend and best man, Jim Skippett: 20 years ago, Dudley had a brief affair with a certain Miss Piper, but he's never heard from her since then. Next day, who should suddenly appear? A youth about 19 or 20 years old, claiming to be named Joe Piper. Is he Horton's son, or is Skippett playing a practical joke?
bee
Thark
Title: Thark
Character: Hook
Released: October 31, 1932
Type: Movie
Mrs Todd is aggrieved at finding that the country house she has bought is evidently haunted. Sir Hector Benbow and his nephew, on behalf of the previous owner, set out to demonstrate that there is no ghost.
bee
A Night Like This
Title: A Night Like This
Character: Miles Tuckett
Released: March 16, 1932
Type: Movie
Going under cover, P.C. Mahoney passes for a gentleman to get into the notorious Moonstone Club. There he meets Clifford Tope, a ne'er do well who is love with cabaret star Cora Mellish. She in turn has run up steep gambling debts and has paid off the Club's blackmailing owner with a stolen necklace. As things heat up Cora seeks help from the easy-going Tope.
bee
Tons of Money
Title: Tons of Money
Character: Chesterman
Released: December 31, 1930
Type: Movie
A debt-ridden inventor has to pretend to be his cousin to avoid his creditors.
bee
Plunder
Title: Plunder
Character: Oswald Veal
Released: November 5, 1930
Type: Movie
A comedy film directed by and starring Tom Walls.
bee
On Approval
Title: On Approval
Character: Hedworth
Released: August 26, 1930
Type: Movie
'Broke duke and millionairess try month of trial marriage.' (British Film Catalogue)
bee
Rookery Nook
Title: Rookery Nook
Character: Harold Twine
Released: February 11, 1930
Type: Movie
A husband tries to hide a runaway girl from his wife and mother-on-law.