Derren Nesbitt

Nesbitt's television appearances began in the 1950s, playing numerous different roles in series such as The Adventures of Sir Lancelot and The Adventures of William Tell; he was often billed as Derry Nesbitt at this stage of his career. He went on to play the villain in a number of well known tv series of the 60s and 70s, including Danger Man, The Saint, Doctor Who, The Prisoner, Gideon's Way, Man in a Suitcase, UFO and The Persuaders!. In 1969 he took on the role of DCI Jordan in the police drama Special Branch.

Nesbitt has also appeared in film roles such as a predatory blackmailer of gay men in Victim (1961), a murderous pimp in The Informers (1963), a slimy assassin in Nobody Runs Forever, and the suspicious Gestapo officer in Where Eagles Dare (1968). Nesbitt was keen to be as authentic as possible with his character in Where Eagles Dare. Whilst on location, he requested to meet a former member of the Gestapo to better understand how to play the character and to get the military regalia correct. He was injured on set whilst filming the scene in which his character is killed. The blood squib attached to Nesbitt exploded with such force that he was temporarily blinded, though he made a quick recovery.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0P0HUgC_1M A Conversation with Derren Nesbitt. "Major von Hapen" in "Where Eagles Dare"]. YouTube (10 June 2013). Retrieved on 2015-11-20.{{Cite news|title=Actor Injured as Burton Fires 'Shot'|date=25 April 1968|work=Chicago Tribune|page=b30}} He also had leading roles in classic early sixties 'B' Movies The Man in the Back Seat and Strongroom, both directed by Vernon Sewell.

In 2018, Nesbitt played the leading role, as a drag queen, in a British independent film, Tucked.{{cite web |title=Tucked - cast list

| website = IMDB.com

| publisher = Internet Movie Database

| access-date = 30 May 2024 |url=https://m.imdb.com/title/tt6773126/fullcredits/cast/?ref_=tt_cl_sm}}

Nesbitt has been married four times and has five children.{{cite web |title=Derren Nesbit at 75 | date =

| website = sussex.greatbritishlife.co.uk

| publisher = Sussex Life |url=http://sussex.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/derren-nesbitt-at-75-19355/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102140749/http://sussex.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/derren-nesbitt-at-75-19355/|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 January 2011|access-date=30 May 2024}}. He is Jewish.[https://www.in70mm.com/news/2023/nesbitt/index.htm]

In 1961, he married his first wife, the actress Anne Aubrey; the couple had a daughter the next year. On 25 January 1973, he was fined £250 when he pleaded guilty to two charges of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in October the previous year. He attacked her with a leather strap after she told him that she was having an affair with another man. He also bruised her by grabbing her clothing the next day when she refused to tell him details about her lover. She divorced him a few months later.Actor Derren Nesbitt Thrashed Wife With Leather, Evening Standard, 25 January 1973Actor Spanked 'Errant' Wife With Thong, The Daily Telegraph, 26 January 1973Derren Nesbitt Fined £250 For Wife Assaults, The Times, 26 January 1973 (see Times Digital Archive){{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2453222/TV-actor-Derren-Nesbitt-to-expose-biblical-myths-in-controversial-book.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080928102633/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/celebritynews/2453222/TV-actor-Derren-Nesbitt-to-expose-biblical-myths-in-controversial-book.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=28 September 2008|title=TV actor Derren Nesbitt to expose 'biblical myths' in controversial book|work=The Telegraph|access-date=13 June 2009|last=Moore|first=Matthew| location=London| date=24 July 2008}}

His third wife was an Australian beauty queen, and for a time he moved to her country where he taught theatre studies at the Northern Rivers Conservatorium of Arts in the New South Wales city of Lismore. By 2014, he was living in Worthing, West Sussex, with his fourth wife, Miranda.

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Category:1935 births

Category:Living people

Category:English male film actors

Category:English male television actors

Category:English people convicted of assault

Category:Violence against women in England

Category:People convicted of domestic violence

Category:Male actors from London

Category:Male actors from Worthing

Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Category:20th-century English male actors

Category:21st-century English male actors