Douglas Wilmer

Douglas Wilmer was an actor. He was born on 8th January 1920 in Brantford, Middlesex in England. He attended King’s School in Canterbury. Further, he completed his graduation from Stonyhurst College. He took training in acting in London from Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Later, he left the training and enrolled in the British Army. He serviced in the Second World War along with Royal Artillery. Then, he had assigned a job in an anti-tank battery where he watched the war in Africa. Then, he moved out of the Armed Forces because of tuberculosis.

Coming to his career, in 1945, he had his first theater performance at Rugby. He portrayed classically and Shakespeare’s acts on the London stages. He had his first film role in ‘Richard III’. It was a Laurence Olivier cinema. He acted as a supporting actor in many movies. In 1956, he played the role in ‘The Battle of the River Plate’. In 1961, he presented as Al-Mu'tamin in the photoplay titled as ‘El Cid’. In 1963, he came up with ‘Cleopatra’. In 1964, he looked up in ‘The Fall of the Roman Empire’. In 1966, he acted as Khalifa Abdullah in ‘khartoum.’ Then, in 1970, he portrayed as Major General Francis Guingand in ‘Patton’. In the same year, he performed as Sir Thomas Fairfax in the picture titled as ‘Cromwell’. In 1972, he appeared in ‘Antony and Cleopatra’. Other acts include the characters of Pelias in ‘Jason and the Argonauts’. In 1964, he did ‘A Shot in the Dark’, which is a Pink Panther production. Others were ‘Revenge of the Pink Panther’, ‘The Golden Voyage of Sinbad’, ‘The Vampire Lovers’ and ‘Octopussy’.

Douglas had a strong association with Sherlock Holmes ingénues. In 1964, he played for the BBC produced show called ‘The Speckled Band’. In this show his co-star was Nigel Stock who had the role of Doctor Watson. In 1973, he acted as Van Duson, a detective, and a professor, in the series titled ‘The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes’. It aired on ITV. Later, he performed as Holmes in ‘The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’. He starred with Thorley Walters. He did ‘The Brides of Fu Manchu’ in 1966 and in 1967; he did ‘The Vengeance of Fu Manchu’.

Wilmer recorded a cassette series based on the story of Penguin books. He attended the various US and UK events. His TV shows includes ‘ The Avengers Click to look into! >> Read More... ’, ‘UFO’, ‘The Adventures of Robin Hood’, ‘The Troubleshooters’, ‘Space: 1999’, ‘The Baron’, and ‘The Saint’. He was a member of the Sherlock Holmes Society.

Coming to his personal life, he married to Elizabeth Joan Melville in 1946. He lived in Woodbridge. Wilmer died on 31st March 2016 in England. The cause of death was pneumonia.