Ray Mort
{{Short description|English actor (1926–1994)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Ray Mort
| birth_name = Joseph Raymond Mort
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1926|1|10|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Bury, Lancashire, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1994|7|4|1926|1|10|df=yes}}
| death_place = Bury, Lancashire, England
| occupation = Actor
| years_active = 1950–1989
}}
Joseph Raymond "Ray" Mort (10 January 1926 - 4 July 1994) was an English actor. He was best known for his roles as Ray in the sitcom Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt, and Ern in the trilogy of television plays for Play for Today that included The Fishing Party (1972), Shakespeare or Bust (1973) and Three for the Fancy (1974).{{Cite web |date=September 14, 2018 |title=Play For Today – The Fishing Party. Simply Media DVD Review |url=https://archivetvmusings.blog/tag/ray-mort/ |url-status=live |website=Archive Television Musings}} He was best known best known for playing character roles in television and theatre. Active from the early 1950s onwards, he was equally adept at both drama and comedy parts.
Career
Mort began his career working in repertory companies in Yorkshire and Lancashire.{{Cite news |last=Godland |first=Douglas |date=July 26, 1952 |title=Saxon Players' Third Anniversary |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003133/19520726/011/0003 |url-status=live |work=Leicester Chronicle |pages=3}} In 1950, he joined the Saxon Players, who performed shows at the Theatre Royal, Leicester; in 1954 he departed from the group and moved to London,{{Cite news |date=February 19, 1954 |title=4 Leading Actors Leave Leicester |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003330/19540219/070/0008 |url-status=live |work=Leicester Evening Mail |pages=8}} where he worked in stock with the Theatre Royal Company appearing in Croydon and Chatham.{{Cite news |date=March 24, 1955 |title=New Company at Chatham |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001179/19550324/127/0012?browse%20=%20false |url-status=live |work=The Stage |pages=12}} Later in August 1955, he briefly returned to the Saxon Players, appearing in Seagulls Over Sorrento as Badger.{{Cite news |date=August 23, 1954 |title=Happy Return |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0003330/19550823/017/0002 |url-status=live |work=Leicester Evening Mail |pages=2}} In 1956, he joined the newly formed Windsor Players, a repertory company based at The Windsor, Salford.{{Cite news |date=August 16, 1956 |title=New Repertory for Salford |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001179/19560816/001/0001 |url-status=live |work=The Stage |pages=1}} Later the same year he made his television debut appearing in ITV's Play of the Week. In 1957, he was among the original cast members in the Granada sitcom The Army Game.{{Cite news |date=June 6, 1957 |title=New Comedy Series from Granada with War Office Blessing |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001179/19570606/062/0007?browse%20=%20false |url-status=live |work=The Stage |pages=7}} Between December 1960 - January 1961 he appeared as insurance agent Ron Bailey in several early episodes of Coronation Street, he later returned in December 1962, playing Harry Bailey, a near identical character. During the 1960's, he appeared in a number of television shows including Armchair Theatre, Z-Cars, No Hiding Place, Taxi!, The Plane Makers, Dixon of Dock Green, The Wednesday Play, Mogul and Softly Softly. In 1965, he joined the cast of Spring and Port Wine as Arthur, initially shown at The Alexandra, Birmingham, it later transferred to the West End in November 1965, showing at the Mermaid Theatre and subsequently at The Apollo Theatre in January 1966,{{Cite news |date=December 16, 1965 |title=Spring and Port Wine' Transfer |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19651216/138/0015 |url-status=live |work=The Stage |pages=15}} he stayed with the cast until the end of its Apollo run in July 1967.{{Cite news |date=July 27, 1967 |title=Chit Chat |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19670727/072/0008 |url-status=live |work=The Stage |pages=8}} In 1968, he appeared in the ATV crime-drama series Crime Buster as Jimmy Vine, which ran for a single series.{{Cite web |title=Crime Buster |url=https://nostalgiacentral.com/television/tv-by-decade/tv-shows-1960s/crime-buster/ |url-status=live |website=Nostalgia Central}}
In 1970, he featured in the Doomwatch episode "The Battery People" as Jones.{{Cite web |last=Banks |first=Clive |title='The Battery People' by Elwyn Jones |url=https://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Doomwatch/Batterypeople.htm |url-status=live |website=Clive Banks}}{{Cite web |date=April 4, 2016 |title=Doomwatch – The Battery People |url=https://archivetvmusings.blog/2016/04/04/doomwatch-the-battery-people/ |url-status=live |website=Archive Television Musings}} Later in 1972, he played Ern in The Fishing Party, alongside Brian Glover and Douglas Livingstone, a comedy about three Derbyshire miners who go on a fishing holiday to Whitby,{{Cite web |last=Wheatcroft |first=John |date=August 31, 2013 |title=The Fishing Party |url=http://www.britishtelevisiondrama.org.uk/?p=3932 |url-status=live |website=British Television Drama}} he would subsequently reprise the role in Shakespeare or Bust and Three for the Fancy respectively. In 1975, he featured in It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow as family patriarch John Bell, a docu-drama that charts the events of the Bethnal Green disaster where 173 people were killed in a stampede at Bethnal Green Station on the night of 3 March 1943.{{Cite web |title=It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow (1975) |url=https://nostalgiacentral.com/movies/movies-a-to-k/movies-i/its-a-lovely-day-tomorrow-1975/ |url-status=live |website=Nostalgia Central}} The same year, he also appeared in The Evacuees as Louis, a television play written by Jack Rosenthal, a semi autobiographical story about two Jewish boys who are sent to lodge with a non-Jewish family in Blackpool at the beginning of World War Two, which later gained an International Emmy award in fiction and drama.{{Cite news |date=November 27, 1975 |title=Emmys for the BBC |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19751127/076/0011 |url-status=live |work=The Stage |pages=11}} Mort's best known television role was as Ray in the Yorkshire Television sitcom Oh No It's Selwyn Froggitt, where he worked as barman and club steward of the Scarsdale Social Club, he appeared in three series broadcast between 1976-1977.{{Cite web |last=Marcus |first=Laurence |date=January 15, 2019 |title=Oh No - It's Selwyn Froggit |url=https://televisionheaven.co.uk/reviews/oh-no-its-selwyn-froggit |url-status=live |website=Television Heaven}} In 1978, he appeared as Mr. Wiggins in an episode of All Creatures Great and Small, he would go onto reprise the same role a decade later.{{Cite web |date=November 25, 1978 |title=All Creatures Great and Small |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/0ea5643e0a36448db8671c465eb80d0f |url-status=live |website=BBC Genome}}{{Cite web |date=September 24, 1988 |title=All Creatures Great and Small |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/0c8ad216f11c4a6f9ef7b3bb62eeb8da |url-status=live |website=BBC Genome}}
Mort has featured in a number of supporting roles in a number of comedy series, including The Good Life, The Cuckoo Waltz, The Other 'Arf, Give Us a Break, Only Fools and Horses, Hallelujah! and Duty Free. He has also appeared in a number of drama series including Owen M.D., Follyfoot, Shabby Tiger, South Riding, Churchill's People, The Sweeney, Esther Walters, Survivors, The XYY Man, All Creatures Great and Small, Crown Court, Dick Turpin, Juliet Bravo, When the Boat Comes In, The Chinese Detective, Bergerac, The Good Companions, Lytton's Diary, Casualty and The Bill.
In 1980, he played George Willis in the Play for Today film Thicker Than Water about a group of black pudding makers who compete in the annual Foire au Bodin (blood sausage) festival in Normandy, the play was written by his former co-star Brian Glover.{{Cite news |last=Holt |first=Hazel |date=January 31, 1980 |title=Glover strong on comedy and character |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0001180/19800131/254/0102 |url-status=live |work=The Stage |pages=100}} Later that same year, he appeared with Glover in the ATV comedy-drama series Sounding Brass, that charts the misadventures of the Debryshire based Ettaswell brass band, which ran for one series.{{Cite web |title=Sounding Brass |url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/sounding_brass/ |url-status=live |website=British Comedy Guide}} In 1982, he appeared in the musical film Pink Floyd – The Wall, by Alan Parker, based on Pink Floyd's album The Wall.{{Cite web |title=Pink Floyd - The Wall (1982) |url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/1022344/index.html |url-status=live |website=BFI Screenonline}} In 1983, Mort briefly appeared as a police officer in the Only Fools and Horses episode "Friday the 14th".{{Cite web |title=Only Fools and Horses: Series 3, Episode 3 - Friday The 14th |url=https://www.comedy.co.uk/tv/only_fools_and_horses/episodes/3/3/ |url-status=live |website=British Comedy Guide}} In 1986, he featured in the two-part Lovejoy episode "Death and Venice" as Campie;{{Cite web |last=Duff |first=Ian |date=November 13, 2018 |title=Lovejoy and Venice (Part 1) |url=https://iainduff.wordpress.com/2018/11/13/lovejoy-and-venice-part-1/ |website=Gallimaufry}} later the same year he appeared as Norman in the Thames Television sitcom We'll Think of Something.{{Cite web |title=We'll Think of Something |url=https://www.phill.co.uk/comedy/think/index.html |url-status=live |website=Phill}} In 1987, he featured as Raggles in several episodes of the 16-part BBC adaption of the novel Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.{{Cite web |date=20 September 1987 |title=Vanity Fair |url=https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/e477032381a5438bb798bb17383537fd |pages=39 |via=BBC Genome |issue=3330}}
In one of his final acting roles, in 1989, Mort featured in the Minder episode "The Wrong Goodbye" as Billy, who is coerced into receiving a consignment of dolls by Arthur Daley, before the bank seizes Daley's business for non-payment.{{Cite news |date=February 6, 1989 |title=Bailiff Trouble for Arthur |url=https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000445/19890206/026/0002 |url-status=live |work=Aberdeen Evening Express |pages=6}}{{Cite web |title=#7.6: The Wrong Goodbye |url=https://www.minder.org/episodeguide/S07E06_TheWrongGoodbye.htm |url-status=live |website=Minder.org}}
Selected Filmography
| class="wikitable"
|+ !Year !Title !Role !Notes |
| 1956
|Play of the Week |Reporter |Story: "Shooting Star" |
| rowspan="2" |1960
|Corporal Tomkins |Story: "Hail the Conquering Hero" |
| Skyport
|Jack |Episode: "Landfall" |
| 1960-1
|Ron Bailey |5 episodes |
| rowspan="2" |1961
|Tubbs |Story: "Looking for Frankie" |
| No Hiding Place
|Gobbo Smith |Episode: "Explosion Underground" |
| rowspan="2" |1962
| rowspan="2" |Z-Cars |Felix |Episode: "Sudden Death" |
| Man
|Episode: "Johnny Sailor" |
| 1962-4
|Coronation Street |Harry Bailey |6 episodes |
| rowspan="2" |1963
|No Hiding Place |Postman |Episode: "Four Faces of Clare" |
| Taxi!
|Bernard |Episode: "Don't Do as I Do" |
| 1963-4
|Sam/ Jack Brough |4 episodes |
| rowspan="3" |1964
|Mr. Arkwright |Episode: "The Witness" |
| No Hiding Place
|Bert Lane |Episode: "Rogue's Gallery" |
| The Wednesday Play
|Peasant |Story: A Crack in the Ice" |
| rowspan="3" |1965
|Dixon of Dock Green |Charlie |Episode: "Other People's Lives" |
| Mogul
|Jack Hartley |Episode: "Safety Man" |
| Z-Cars
|Dodds |Episode: "Another Fairytale" |
| rowspan="3" |1968
|Jimmy Vine |13 episodes |
| Softly Softly
|Bob Spender |Episode: "Quicker by Rail" |
| Z-Cars
|Collinstone |Episode: "Collinstone" (2 parts) |
| 1970
|Jones |Episode: "The Battery People" |
| 1971
|Dent |Episode: "An Inside Job" |
| 1972
|Harry Spence |2 episodes |
| rowspan="2" |1973
|Policeman |Episode: "Sell the Tiger" |
| Shabby Tiger
|Joe Kepple |4 episodes |
| 1972-4
|Ern |3 episodes |
| rowspan="3" |1974
|Ted Watson |Episode: "Under Suspicion" |
| Special Branch
|Ron Murray |Episode: "Stand and Deliver" |
| South Riding
|Barney Holly |7 episodes |
| rowspan="6" |1975
|Louis |TV Movie |
| Churchill's People
|Church Commissioner |Episode: "America!, America!" |
| The Cuckoo Waltz
|Truscott |Episode: "House for Sale" |
| The Good Life
|Angler |Episode: "The Thing in the Cellar" |
| It's a Lovely Day Tomorrow
|John Bell |TV Movie |
| The Sweeney
|Driscoll |Episode: "Ringer" |
| rowspan="2" |1976
|Mr. Wilfer |4 episodes |
| Softy Softy Taskforce
|George Barton |Episode: "As Good Cooks Go..." |
| 1976-7
|Ray |21 episodes |
| rowspan="3" |1977
|Jim Saunders |1 episode |
| Survivors
|Joe Briggs |Episode: "Long Live The King" |
| The XYY Man
|DS King |2 episodes |
| 1978-88
|All Creatures Great and Small |Mr. Wiggins |2 episodes |
| 1979
|Tommy Weekes |Episode: "The Irish Connection" (2 parts) |
| rowspan="5" |1980
|Radstock |Episode: "The Judge" |
| Play for Today
|George Willis |Story: "Thicker than Water" |
| Juliet Bravo
|Walter Pengally |Episode: "Oscar" |
| The Other 'Arf
|Stan |Episode: "Never the Twain" |
| Sounding Brass
|Gerry Thompson |6 episodes |
| rowspan="6" |1981
|Kranski |Episode: "See You in Moscow" |
| The Chinese Detective
|Polish Caretaker |2 episodes |
| Crown Court
|John Winder |Episode: "Proof Spirits" (2 parts) |
| The Good Companions
|Pitsner |Episode: "Salvage Work" |
| Juliet Bravo
|Jack Willis |Episode: "Party Fun" |
| When the Boat Comes In
|Manny Goldstein |Episode: "Action!" |
| 1982
|Playground Father |Film |
| rowspan="2" |1983
|Solly Goldstein |Episode: "When It Rains, It Pours" |
| Only Fools and Horses
|Policeman |Episode: "Friday the 14th" |
| 1983-4
|Benge/ Harold Marshall |2 episodes |
| 1984
|George |2 episodes |
| 1985
|Porter |Episode: "The Lady in the Mask" |
| rowspan="2" |1986
|Campie |Episode: "Death and Venice" (2 parts) |
| We'll Think of Something
|Norman |6 episodes |
| rowspan="2" |1987
|Albie Monday |Episode: "Hooked" |
| Vanity Fair
|Raggles |7 episodes |
| 1988
|Mr. Baxter |Episode: "Stop and Search" |
| rowspan="2" |1989
|Billy |Episode: "The Wrong Goodbye" |
| Young Charlie Chaplin
|William Jackson |1 episode (final role) |
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|id=0607730|name=Ray Mort}}
- [https://www.comedy.co.uk/people/ray_mort/ Ray Mort] at British Comedy Guide
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mort, Ray}}