David Battley

Despite being born with a hole in his heart on 5th November 1935, in Battersea, London, David was home-tutored before attending special schools. He was the elder son of the post- World War II World War II is a Malayalam information TV show on >> Read More... MP, John Battley. Later, he was enrolled at Camberwell Art School but left without finishing his course. To earn a living, he worked at Battley Brothers, his family printing firm. He later applied to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Battley was primarily known for his dry and ironic delivery through his characters which were comic stooges in television and films. His best-known character was the confused teacher of Charlie Bucket in the movie Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. His famous comic role in the mid-1970s was as a comic foil to Eric Idle Eric Idle was born on 29th March, 1943, in South S >> Read More... , a member of the Monty Python team, in Rutland Weekend Television, which was a BBC series. Idle went on praising David’s dry, poker-faced style on the show.   

Besides being an actor, he had another feather in his cap: making films - movies like Hotel Paradiso (1966), Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971), Up The Front (1972), SOS Titanic (1979), Krull (1983) and many more are his works. He played the role of a golf course employee- one of his last roles, in the episode of ‘Tee Off, Mr. Bean’ (1955) of the comedy series of Mr. Bean. In ‘Sharpe’s Regiment’ (1996), he played the doctor who experimented with the new regimental recruits. He breathed his last on 20th January 2003, after a cardiac arrest in Epsom, Surrey, England.