Bernard Miles
Also Known As: Bernard James Miles
Biography: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Bernard James Miles, Baron Miles, CBE (27 September 1907–14 June 1991) was an English character actor, writer and director. He opened the Mermaid Theatre in London in 1959, the first new theatre opened in the City of London since the 17th century. Miles was born in Uxbridge, Middlesex and attended Bishopshalt School in Hillingdon. While his parents were respectively a farm labourer and a cook, he was educated at Pembroke College, Oxford. He entered the theatre in the 1930s, soon appearing in films. Like many actors, he featured prominently in the patriotic cinema during the Second World War, including classics of the genre such as In Which We Serve and One of Our Aircraft Is Missing. He also had an uncredited role in the WWII classic The First of the Few, released in the US as Spitfire. His typical persona as an actor was as a countryman, with a strong accent typical of the Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire counties. He was also, after Robert Newton, the actor most associated with the part of Long John Silver, which he played in a British TV version of Treasure Island, and in an annual performance at the Mermaid commencing in the winter of 1961-62. Actors in the annual theatrical productions included Spike Milligan as Ben Gunn, and, in the 1968 production, Barry Humphries as Long John Silver. It was Miles who, impressed by the talent of John Antrobus originally commissioned him to write a play of some sort. This led to Antrobus collaborating with Milligan to produce a one-act play called The Bed Sitting Room, which was later adapted to a longer play, and staged by Miles at The Mermaid on 31 January 1963, with both critical and commercial success. He had a pleasant rolling bass-baritone voice that worked well in theatre and film, as well as being much in demand for voice-overs. As a performer, he was most well known for a series of comic monologues, often given in a rural dialect. These were recorded and sold as record albums, which were quite popular. Some of his comic monologues are currently available on youtube.com. Miles was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1953, was knighted in 1969, and was granted a life peerage as Baron Miles, of Blackfriars in the City of London in 1979. He was only the second British actor ever to be given a peerage (the first was Laurence Olivier). Miles's written works include "The British Theatre" (1947), "God's Brainwave" (1972), and "Favorite Tales from Shakespeare" (1972). In 1981, he co-authored the book Curtain Calls with J.C. Trewin. He died in Yorkshire. His daughters are the actress Sally Miles and the artist Bridget Miles. His son John Miles was a Grand Prix Driver in the late 1960s and early 1970s with the Lotus team. Description above from the Wikipedia article Bernard Miles, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Department: Acting
Place of Birth: Uxbridge, Hillingdon, Middlesex, England, UK
Adult: No
Birthday: September 27, 1907
Age: 117 years old
Gender: Male
Deathday: June 14, 1991
Popularity:
Known For:
The Man Who Knew Too Much
Overview: A couple vacationing in Morocco with their young son accidentally stumble upon an assassination plot. When the child is kidnapped to ensure their silence, they have to take matters into their own hands to save him.
Genres: Thriller Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-05-16
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Moby Dick
Overview: In 1841, young Ishmael signs up for service aboard the Pequod, a whaler sailing out of New Bedford. The ship is under the command of Captain Ahab, a strict disciplinarian who exhorts his men to find Moby Dick, the great white whale. Ahab lost his leg to that creature and is desperate for revenge. As the crew soon learns, he will stop at nothing to gain satisfaction.
Genres: Adventure Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-06-27
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The Smallest Show on Earth
Overview: Jean and Bill are a married couple trying to scrape a living. Out of the blue they receive a telegram informing them Bill's long-lost uncle has died and left them his business—a cinema in the town of Sloughborough. Unfortunately they can't sell it for the fortune they hoped as they discover it is falling down and almost worthless.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-04-09
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Great Expectations
Overview: In this Dickens adaptation, orphan Pip discovers through lawyer Mr. Jaggers that a mysterious benefactor wishes to ensure that he becomes a gentleman. Reunited with his childhood patron, Miss Havisham, and his first love, the beautiful but emotionally cold Estella, he discovers that the elderly spinster has gone mad from having been left at the altar as a young woman, and has made her charge into a warped, unfeeling heartbreaker.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-12-26
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One of Our Aircraft Is Missing
Overview: On its way back from a raid on the city of Stuttgart, Germany, a British bomber is shot down over Nazi-held Holland. Parachuting into Dutch farmlands under cover of darkness, the six-member crew connects with members of the local resistance, who shelter the Brits from their Nazi inquisitors as they make their way towards freedom.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-04-24
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Sapphire
Overview: Two Scotland Yard detectives investigate the murder of a young woman of mixed race who had been passing for white. As they interview a spate of suspects -- including the girl's white boyfriend and his disapproving parents -- the detectives wade through a stubbornly entrenched sludge of racism and bigotry.
Genres: Mystery Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1959-11-02
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Never Let Me Go
Overview: An American reporter falls in love with a Russian ballet dancer.
Genres: Romance Drama Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1953-03-18
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Tiger in the Smoke
Overview: In wartime, a young officer is killed during a raid to kill a German general at the house that used to belong to his grandmother. Before he dies he talks about a treasure that was hidden there. Several years later, the members of that group are still together as a street band living in a cellar. The last of the gang, who was chosen for his skills as a ruthless killer, escapes from prison in a rampage of killing and, obsessed with the treasure, takes the gang to France to recover it.
Genres: Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-11-27
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The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
Overview: A fatherless boy tries to make his fortune despite interference from his rich uncle.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-03-12
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Tom Thumb
Overview: A boy, no bigger than a thumb, manages to outwit two thieves determined to make a fortune from him.
Genres: Music Family Fantasy Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-12-04
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Run Wild, Run Free
Overview: A young boy, unable to speak, befriends a wild colt with blue eyes and a falcon named "Lady".
Genres: Drama Family
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1969-03-28
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Why Didn't They Ask Evans?
Overview: This intriguing story is set in the 1930s at a country house, where two amateur sleuths, Bobby Jones and Lady Frankie Derwent, try to unravel the mystery behind a tale of murder, suspense and false identities. And the only clues the two have to go on are the puzzling last words of a dying man. Featuring characters created by Agatha Christie, Why Didn't They Ask Evans is a classic crime thriller sure to please murder-mystery fans.
Genres: Thriller TV Movie Mystery
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1980-03-30
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Fortune Is a Woman
Overview: An insurance man discovers his ex-girlfriend and her husband's art-forgery/arson scam.
Genres: Thriller Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-03-13
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Treasure Island
Overview: Intrigue...comedy...adventure...unforgettable characters and exotic settings - the legendary story of Treasure Island comes to life in this colourful adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's masterpiece. Join these timeless travellers in this wonderful and immortal tale of treasure and treachery!
Genres: Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1982-01-01
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The Common Touch
Overview: On the death of his father, an eighteen-year old leaves school to take over the family firm in the City of London. Realising the other directors want to keep him in the dark he starts asking questions, and is soon undercover as a down-and-out in a hostel which will disappear if a company building project goes ahead.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-11-15
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Quiet Wedding
Overview: A young couple become engaged, but enjoy a number of comedic aventures before their wedding day.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-04-19
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The Rebel Son
Overview: During the 16th century the Cossacks and their Ukraine homeland is ruled by Poland. This is the story of the leader of the Cossacks and how his son was sent to study under the Poles to learn how to defeat them in battle. However, the son falls in love with the daughter of a Polish nobleman.
Genres: History Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-02-02
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The Guinea Pig
Overview: A working-class boy wins a scholarship to a public school, as part of a post-World War Two experiment in bringing boys of different social classes together.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1948-10-26
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They Drive by Night
Overview: “Shorty” Matthews having recently been released from prison visits his girlfriend in London only to discover her murdered. Fearing he will be wrongly accused of being the culprit he disappears amongst the long-distance lorry driving community. Meanwhile, the real killer, unassuming ex-schoolteacher Walter Hoover, continues to prey on London women. As Shorty had feared he has become the main suspect. He returns to London with old flame Molly to prove his innocence.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-12-01
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Tunisian Victory
Overview: Documentary made by the U.S. Army Signal Corps after the North African campaign.
Genres: Documentary War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-03-23
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Pastor Hall
Overview: The village of Altdorf has to come to terms with Chancellor Hitler and the arrival of a platoon of Stormtroopers. The Stormtroopers go about teaching and enforcing "The New Order", but Pastor Hall, a kind and gentle man, won't be cowed. Some villagers join the Nazi party avidly, and some just go along with things, hoping for a quiet life, but Pastor Hall takes his convictions to the pulpit.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-05-28
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Carnival
Overview: A melodrama about a 19th-century ballet dancer who makes an unfortunate career move by marrying a taciturn Cornish farmer. She soon longs for the bright lights of the big city and for the arms of her artist lover. Unfortunately, her husband is all too aware of this.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1946-12-02
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Heavens Above!
Overview: A naive but caring prison chaplain, who happens to have the same last name as an upper class cleric, is by mistake appointed as vicar to a small and prosperous country town. His belief in charity and forgiveness sets him at odds with the conservative and narrow-minded locals, and he soon creates social ructions by appointing a black dustman as his churchwarden, taking in a gypsy family, and persuading the local landowner to provide free food for the church to distribute free to the people of the town. When the congregation leaders realise the mistake and call for the Church of England to remove him, this turns out to be a very, very difficult issue - until one clergyman realises that a British project to send a man into space is in need of an astronaut...
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1963-05-20
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In Which We Serve
Overview: The story of the HMS Torrin, from its construction to its sinking in the Mediterranean during action in World War II. The ship's first and only commanding officer is Captain E.V. Kinross, who trains his men not only to be loyal to him and the country, but—most importantly—to themselves.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-09-17
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Chance of a Lifetime
Overview: The workers in a small plough factory take over the firm, but when a large order falls through, the old management come back to help out.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1950-04-24
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Two Fathers
Overview: An Englishman and Frenchman sharing a hotel room discover their children are fighting on the same side, French Resistance and R.A.F.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-01-19
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Twelve Good Men
Overview: A convicted killer escapes and seeks revenge on the jurors who put him in prison. He kills two of them and the rest end up hiding in the large home of another juror, an actor. It is the actor who saves them from the murderous fugitive.
Genres: Crime Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-03-01
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Tawny Pipit
Overview: Jimmy Bancroft, a fighter pilot, who is recovering from injuries sustained during the Battle of Britain, and Hazel Court, a nurse, come across a pair of rare birds nestling in a field. After a run in with the army, and a couple of thieves, they, with the cooperation of the village people and the Ornithology Society, help the eggs to hatch. A wonderful look at life in a small village, during World War II.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1944-04-28
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Fame Is the Spur
Overview: A politician rises rapidly to fame and fortune and discovers that power corrupts and ultimately becomes the very type of politician he had set out to displace.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1947-09-23
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Late Extra
Overview: A newspaper reporter sets out to track down the murderer of a policeman.
Genres: Drama Crime
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-11-19
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Freedom Radio
Overview: Hitler's doctor is gradually realising that the Nazi regime isn't as good as it pretends to be when his friends start to "disappear" into the camps. His wife is courted by the party and accepts a political post in Berlin. Meanwhile Dr Karl decides to try to do something to counteract the Nazi propaganda and with the help of an engineer and a few friends he sets up the Freedom Radio to counteract the Nazi propaganda.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-02-04
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The Dawn Guard
Overview: Bernard Miles and Percy Walsh play two members of the Home Guard, on duty by a windmill, discussing the causes of the war and the issues at stake.
Genres: War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1941-01-01
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The Challenge
Overview: Dramatization of the first climbing of the Matterhorn in 1865.
Genres: Romance Adventure History
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-09-14
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The Spy in Black
Overview: A German submarine is sent to the Orkney Isles in 1917 to sink the British fleet.
Genres: War Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-08-03
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Strange Boarders
Overview: Pre-war intelligence man Tommy Blythe interrupts his honeymoon to investigate the discovery of vital Air Ministry blueprints on a woman killed in a London road accident. The trail leads to a boarding house in Notting Hill and its varied tenants.
Genres: Thriller Mystery Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-05-01
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The Love Test
Overview: Romance set in a chemical factory.
Genres: Comedy Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-06-30
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Crown v. Stevens
Overview: When an ex-dancer marries a man for his money she is surprised to find he is a real skinflint. She owes a lot of money to a loan-shark who is after her. However, her husband does carry a lot of life insurance.
Genres: Crime Thriller
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1936-08-03
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The Citadel
Overview: Andrew Manson, a young, idealistic, newly qualified Scottish doctor arrives in Wales takes his first job in a mining town, and begins to wonder at the persistent cough many of the miners have. When his attempts to prove its cause are thwarted, he moves to London. His new practice does badly. But when a friend shows him how to make a lucrative practice from rich hypochondriacs, it will take a great shock to show him what the truth of being a doctor really is.
Genres: Drama Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1938-10-29
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Band Waggon
Overview: A gang of spies held up in a haunted castle gives this team of celebrated British wireless comedians plenty of scope for laughs.
Genres: Comedy Music
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-03-23
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Contraband
Overview: When a neutral Danish merchant ship is forced to put into port after trying to evade British wartime contraband control, its captain becomes involved in a beautiful British Naval Intelligent agent's efforts to capture a group of German spies operating from a London cinema.
Genres: Thriller War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1940-05-11
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The Vision of William Blake
Overview: The artistic and spiritual vision of William Blake as expressed through his books and illustrations.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-01-01
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Henry Moore
Overview: A documentary on the work of artist Henry Moore.
Genres: Documentary TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1951-04-30
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The Big Blockade
Overview: Wartime propaganda piece reporting on the success of the economic blockade of Germany in the early years of the war.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-01-19
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Zarak
Overview: A notorious bandit develops a grudging respect for the English military man assigned to capture him.
Genres: Romance Action Adventure
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1956-12-01
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The New Lot
Overview: A new batch of Army recruits, from diverse backgrounds and with varying degrees of commitment, is shaped into an efficient fighting unit.
Genres: War Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1943-01-01
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The Guv'nor
Overview: The Guv'nor (released in the U.S. as Mr. Hobo) is a 1935 British comedy film starring George Arliss as a tramp who rides a series of misunderstandings and becomes the president of a bank.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1935-10-01
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The Magic Box
Overview: 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.
Genres: Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1952-01-01
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The Day Will Dawn
Overview: Sports journalist Colin Metcalfe is picked for the job of foreign correspondent in Norway when Hitler invades Poland. On the way to Langedal his boat is attacked by a German U-Boat, however when he tells the navy about it they do not believe him and, to make matters worse, he is removed from his job. When German forces invade Norway, Metcalfe returns determined to uncover what is going on and stop the Germans in their tracks.
Genres: Drama War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-06-08
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Saint Joan
Overview: In 1456, French King Charles VII recalls the story of how he met the 17-year-old peasant girl Joan of Arc, entrusted her with the command of the French Army, and ultimately burned her at the stake as a heretic.
Genres: History Drama
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1957-05-08
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The Specialist
Overview: Lem Putt specializes in building outdoor lavatories.
Genres: Comedy
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1966-08-21
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The Lion Has Wings
Overview: This early, influential propaganda film blends documentary and studio footage to show the valiant efforts of the Royal Air Force to defend the British people against the Nazis.
Genres: Documentary War
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1939-11-03
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Barbara Hepworth
Overview: A contemporary of Henry Moore, Yorkshire-born Barbara Hepworth has made Cornwall her home. This film by John Read examines how the Cornish landscapes have influenced Hepworth's work, and the artist takes us through the planning stages in the creation of her sculptures.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1961-09-17
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James Stewart: A Wonderful Life
Overview: Documentary about James Stewart's long career as an actor and positive personal life.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-11-22
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Wuthering Heights
Overview: Mistreated foundling Heathcliff and his stepsister Catherine fall in love, but when she marries a wealthy man, he becomes obsessed with getting revenge, even well into the next generation. [Originally aired on CBS's DuPont Show of the Month.]
Genres: Drama TV Movie Romance
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1958-05-09
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The Lady and the Highwayman
Overview: During one of his robberies, a highwayman, who steals from the rich and gives to the poor, falls in love with an aristocratic lady. Now, he is forced to choose between his true love or his true cause.
Genres: Action Drama Romance TV Movie
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1988-12-03
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Sabotage!
Overview: Part of BFI boxset Ration Books and Rabbit Pies: Films from the Home Front.
Genres: Documentary
Original Language: en
Release Date: 1942-01-01
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