Sydney Tafler
Birthday: Born in 1916-07-31 in Hackney, London, England, UK
Deathday: 1979-11-08
Sydney Tafler (31 July 1916 - 8 November 1979) was an English actor.
TV Credits
Thriller
Character: Sam Meadows
Thriller is a British television series, originally broadcast in the UK from 1973 to 1976. It is an anthology series: each episode has a self-contained story and its own cast. As the title suggests, each story is a thriller of some variety, from tales of the supernatural to down-to-earth whodunits....
Z-Cars
Character:
Z-Cars or Z Cars is a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown, based on Kirkby, Merseyside. Produced by the BBC, it debuted in January 1962 and ran until September 1978....
Gideon's Way
Character: Gabriel Lyon
Gideon's Way is a British television crime series made by ITC Entertainment in 1964/65, based on the novels by John Creasey. The series was made at Elstree in twin production with The Saint TV series. It starred Liverpudlian John Gregson in the title role as Commander George Gideon of Scotland Yard, with Alexander Davion as his assistant, Detective Chief Inspector David Keen, Reginald Jessup as Det. Superintendent LeMaitre, Ian Rossiter as Detective Chief Superintendent Joe Bell and Basil Dignam...
The Sweeney
Character: Manny Bellow
Jack Regan, an unethical officer of the Flying Squad, uses unorthodox methods to pursue criminals with the help of his partner, George Carter....
Crown Court
Character:
Crown Court is an afternoon television courtroom drama produced by Granada Television for the ITV network that ran from 1972, when the Crown Court system replaced Assize courts and Quarter sessions in the legal system of England and Wales, to 1984....
Survivors
Character: Manny
Survivors is a British post-apocalyptic fiction television series devised by Terry Nation and produced by Terence Dudley at the BBC from 1975 to 1977. It concerns the plight of a group of people who have survived an accidentally released plague – referred to as "The Death" – that kills nearly the entire human population of the planet....
Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em
Character:
Meet Frank Spencer, an eager young man trying to find his way in the world. He's enthusiastic, well-meaning... and disaster-prone....
The Enigma Files
Character: Solly King
The Enigma Files is a British television detective drama that ran for a single series of fifteen episodes in 1980. Detective Chief Inspector Nick Lewis is tasked with investigating unsolved crimes....
Van der Valk
Character: Hoofd-commissaris Halsbeek
Van der Valk is a British television series that was produced by Thames Television for the ITV network. It starred Barry Foster in the title role as Dutch detective Commissaris "Piet" van der Valk. Based on the characters and atmosphere of the novels of Nicolas Freeling, the first series was shown in 1972....
No Hiding Place
Character:
No Hiding Place is a British television series that was produced at Wembley Studios by Associated-Rediffusion for the ITV network between 16 September 1959 and 22 June 1967. It was the sequel to the series Murder Bag and Crime Sheet, all starring Raymond Francis as Detective Superintendent, later Detective Chief Superintendent Tom Lockhart....
Play for Today
Character: Mr. Leo Crowley
Play for Today is a British television anthology drama series, produced by the BBC and transmitted on BBC1 from 1970 to 1984. During the run, more than three hundred programmes, featuring original television plays, and adaptations of stage plays and novels, were transmitted. The individual episodes were between fifty and a hundred minutes in duration....
Man in a Suitcase
Character:
Accused of treason, a former U.S. intelligence officer based in London tries to clear his name, taking on freelance jobs around Europe as he searches for answers....
A Slight Case Of...
Character:
Roy Kinnear plays a seedy and incompetent private detective named H A Wormsley....
Citizen James
Character:
Citizen James is a BBC sitcom that ran for three series between 24 November 1960 and 23 November 1962. The show featured comedian and actor Sid James and Sydney Tafler with Bill Kerr and Liz Fraser appearing in early episodes. It was initially written by the comedy writing team of Galton and Simpson, who based the characters very much on the "Sidney Balmoral James" and "Bill Kerr, the dim-witted Australian" roles that they had played in Hancock's Half Hour. The first series was set around 'Char...
The Third Man
Character:
...
The Adventurer
Character: Wyvern
The Adventurer is an ITC Entertainment TV adventure series created by Dennis Spooner that ran for one season from 1972 to 1973. It premiered in the UK on 29 September 1972. The show starred Gene Barry as Gene Bradley, a government agent of independent means who poses as a glamorous American movie star....
The Cannon & Ball Show
Character: The Agent
A comedy variety show featuring the double act of Tommy Cannon and Bobby Ball....
The Larkins
Character: Sidney Foskett
'The Larkins' is a British television sitcom which was produced by Associated Television and aired on ITV. It aired for four series between 1958 to 1960. An additional two series aired from 1963 to 1964....
Playhouse
Character: Kugelmann
A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)....
Movie Credits
The Long Arm
Character: Stone
Scotland Yard detectives attempt to solve a spate of safe robberies across England beginning with clues found at the latest burglary in London. The film is notable for using a police procedural style made popular by Ealing in their 1950 film The Blue Lamp. It is known in the US as The Third Key....
The Spy Who Loved Me
Character: Liparus Captain
Russian and British submarines with nuclear missiles on board both vanish from sight without a trace. England and Russia both blame each other as James Bond tries to solve the riddle of the disappearing ships. But the KGB also has an agent on the case....
Secret People
Character: Syd Burnett
This tale of intrigue finds Valentina Cortese involved in an assassination plot. She helps the police apprehend the conspirators after an innocent bystander is accidentally killed....
Carry On Regardless
Character: Strip Club Manager
After a bunch of no-hopers approaches an employment agency, the anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs, including a chimp's tea party, trying to stay sober at a wine tasting… and demolishing a house....
The Lavender Hill Mob
Character: Clayton
A meek bank clerk who oversees the shipments of bullion joins with an eccentric neighbor to steal gold bars and smuggle them out of the country....
Way Off Beat
Character: Arthur Bradshaw
Arthur Bradshaw is a successful fixer, with plans to start a night club....
It Always Rains on Sunday
Character: Morry Hyams
During a rainy Sunday afternoon, an escaped prisoner tries to hide out at the home of his ex-fiance....
Berserk!
Character: Harrison Liston
A lady ringmaster milks the publicity from a string of murders....
Dial 999
Character: Alf Cressett
A man tells his wife that the police are after him for having killed a bookie during an alcoholic binge, but that he is innocent and is being framed for the murder. The wife and her brother hide him and try to find out who the real killer was. The more they investigate, the more holes they begin to find in the husband's story....
Carve Her Name with Pride
Character: Potter
London, England, during World War II. After living a tragic life experience, young Violette Szabo joins the Special Operations Executive and crosses the German enemy lines as a secret agent to aid a French Resistance group....
The Cockleshell Heroes
Character: Policeman
During WW2, German ships are "safely" docked upriver at Bordeaux, but the British send a team of kayakers to attack them....
The Saint's Return
Character: Max Lennar
A private detective goes after the people who murdered his girlfriend....
The Counterfeit Plan
Character: Harry Flint
An escaped murderer flees France to England, where he forces an ex-forger, now established as a reputable estate owner, and the forger's daughter who knew nothing of his past, to counterfeit 5-pound notes for mass distribution around the countryside....
Promise Her Anything
Character: Panel Participant
A widowed mother decides to go after the child psychologist she works for because she thinks he'll be able to provide for her toddler, the catch is her employer doesn't know about her son and he doesn't particularly care for children despite his profession....
The Glass Cage
Character: Rorke
A circus barker stages a sensational new act, the world's longest fast undertaken by “Sapolio”, on view in a glass cage. But this act also results in several murders, a kidnapping, and a poisoning!...
Wide Boy
Character: Benny
Picking a pocket leads to blackmail and murder for a petty criminal in London....
Bottoms Up!
Character: Sid Biggs
An incompetent boarding school headmaster, Professor Jim Edwards, devises a bizarre plot to raise the profile of his boarding school, and thus save his job, by passing off his bookie's son as a Middle Eastern prince. The headmaster's madcap scheme is further complicated when an official from the Foreign Office arrives and announces that a real prince is to be placed under Edwards supervision, not due to the schools lofty reputation, but that a gang of kidnappers are unlikely to look for the reg...
Mystery Junction
Character: Larry Gordon
In this crime drama, an escaped convict is recaptured and charged with killing two people in a lonely waystation during a snowstorm. Fortunately, a novelist is around to prove him innocent....
Blind Man's Bluff
Character: Ricky Martin
Young Anthony Pendrell plays the precocious son of Scotland Yard inspector Norman Shelley. Pendrell's efforts to emulate his father usually results in nothing but irritation for his elders. But when a boarding house becomes the headquarters for a criminal gang, it is Pendrell who cracks the case....
Light Up the Sky!
Character: Ted Green
Chaos ensues when a bunch of misfits man a British searchlight battery during World War II....
Operation Diplomat
Character: Wade
A physician is forced to operate on a mystery figure under shady circumstances....
Once a Sinner
Character: Jimmy Smart
Impoverished British bank clerk John Ross is hopelessly in love with drop-dead gorgeous Irene James. Ross will do anything to win Irene's affections - including embezzlement. She ends up marrying him, but she can't give up her true love, slimy counterfeiter Jimmy Smart......
Reach for the Sky
Character: Robert Desoutter
The true story of airman Douglas Bader who overcame the loss of both legs in a 1931 flying accident to become a successful fighter pilot and wing leader during World War II....
The Floating Dutchman
Character: Victor Skinner
Two men working on the docks close to London's Tower Bridge find the body of an unidentified man floating in the Thames. The police later identify the body to be that of a diamond courier from Holland. The police have to find his murderer, as well as the missing diamonds he was carrying....
London Belongs to Me
Character: Night Club Receptionist
Classic British drama about the residents of a large terrace house in London between Christmas 1938 and September 1939. Percy Boon lives with his mother in a shared rented house with an assortment of characters in central London. Although well intentioned, he becomes mixed up with gangsters and murder. The story focuses on the effects this has on Percy and the other residents....
A Kid for Two Farthings
Character: Madam Rita
Joe is a young boy who lives with his mother, Joanna, in working-class London. The two reside above the tailor shop of Mr. Kandinsky, who likes to tell Joe stories. When Kandinsky informs Joe that a unicorn can grant wishes, the hopeful lad ends up buying a baby goat with one tiny horn, believing it to be a real unicorn. Undaunted by his rough surroundings, Joe sets about to prove that wishes can come true....
The Bank Raiders
Character: Bernie Shelton
A third rate con man lands himself the job of a get-away driver for a bank heist that has complications....
Hotel Sahara
Character: Pullar
World War II farce about the hotel of the title...
The Sandwich Man
Character: First Fish Porter
A man with a sandwich-board (advert) wanders around London meeting many strange characters....
The Galloping Major
Character: Mr. Leon
A syndicate is set up to buy a racehorse, but they end up buying the wrong one by mistake. Unfortunately the horse is useless on the flat, so they try entering him as a jumper....
Fire Maidens of Outer Space
Character: Dr. Higgins
An astronaut and crew land on Jupiter's 13th moon and find a monster and women from Atlantis....
Make Mine Mink
Character: Lionel Spanager
In a mansion block in Knightsbridge, a gang of middle-aged biddies decide to brighten up "the dullness of the tea time of life" by staging a series of robberies on furriers, then donating the proceeds to charitable concerns. Terry Thomas as a retired army officer leads the gang, which includes Athene Seyler and Hattie Jacques, on a series of capers that nearly go awry when their maid, Billie Whitelaw, an ex-con and also a resident of the block, falls for a police officer....
Alfie
Character: Frank
A young man leads a promiscuous lifestyle until several life reversals make him rethink his purposes and goals in life....
Scarlet Thread
Character: Marcon
Tale of Cambridge college exploits of two smash-and-grab thieves on the run....
The Cellar and the Almond Tree
Character:
The Countess lives in her East European palace, oblivious to the new regime that has moved in. After the war Volubin, a Marxist writer, is instructed to obtain from her the keys to her wine-cellar, which are needed for a celebration dinner. First shown in 1970, this play charts the transition of dictatorial power in the 20th century....
Assassin for Hire
Character: Antonio Riccardi
Antonio Riccardi, a rare stamp dealer who is secretly a hired killer, pays for the violin lessons of his gifted brother Giuseppe. To meet the expenses of Giuseppe's concert debut he accepts a further job, but his decision to do so provides Detective Inspector Carson, who has long hoped to ensnare Tony, with an opportunity that might now enable him to bring about his downfall....
The Birthday Party
Character: Nat Goldberg
Based on Harold Pinter's enigmatic play about a boarder in a British seaside dwelling who is visited by two strangers. They torment him verbally, ask him idiotic unanswerable questions, force him to sit down and stand up, and give him a "party". Then, eventually, they take him away, a tongue-tied idiot. The trivial becomes the terrible, and with it a certain wonder, a certain pity....
Runaway Railway
Character: Mr. Jones
A group of young railway enthusiasts attempt to stop the closure of the local railway by trying to raise money to buy it and the steam engine "Matilda." They get help from a pair of men claiming to be enthusiasts but who turn out to be robbers who plan to hold up the mail train...
There Was a Young Lady
Character: Johnny
A super-efficient secretary circumvents the schemes of smash-and grab gangsters....
The Woman for Joe
Character: Butch
A carnival boss and a little person from the sideshow compete for the same woman....
Johnny on the Run
Character:
A Polish boy runs away from his unkind foster mother in Edinburgh and finds a new home in a lakeside village for orphans of all nations, after encountering trouble through his innocent implication in a robbery....
The 7th Dawn
Character: Tom, Chief Petty Officer
Political and personal intrigues surround a group of characters in Malaya, after the close of the Second World War....
The Sea Shall Not Have Them
Character: Cpl. Robb
During the autumn of 1944, RAF Hudson, carrying a VIP passenger in possession of highly secret information, is shot down and ditches in the North Sea. Fighting the elements and trying to keep up morale, the occupants of the aircraft's dinghy talk about their lives awaiting the rescue they hope will come. The film's title reflects the motto of the RAF's Air Sea Rescue Service, one of whose high speed launches battles against its own mechanical problems, enemy action, time and the weather to locat...
Cottage to Let
Character: RAF Officer (uncredited)
Allied spies and Nazi Agents insinuate themselves at a Scottish cottage (converted to a wartime hospital) with interests on an inventor's nearly perfected bomb sight....
Uneasy Terms
Character: Maysin
Private eye Slim Callaghan is summoned to the country home of a Colonel Stenhurst, but the latter is murdered before he can talk to the detective. Was one of the Colonel's three daughters responsible?...
Passport to Pimlico
Character: Fred Cowan
When an unexploded WWII bomb is accidentally detonated in Pimlico, it reveals a treasure trove and documents proving that the region is in fact part of Burgundy, France and thus foreign territory. The British government attempts to regain control by setting up border controls and cutting off services to the area....
The Monkey's Paw
Character: Freeman, the Dealer
A curio dealer sells a monkey's paw that can grant the possessor three wishes but warns that disaster will follow....
Booby Trap
Character: Mr Hunter
An absent minded professor invents a pen that will explode on the sound of bells, then leaves it in a taxi...
Emergency Call
Character: Brett
A 5-year-old child is diagnosed with leukaemia and has only days to live. Her only hope is a blood transfusion, but her blood type is extremely rare, so the race is on to find the donors....
Baby Blues
Character: Mr. Crowley
Lavinia has been yearning and trying for ten years to conceive, and finally gives birth to a live baby. However, she finds that things are not as she dreamed and envisaged, and she suffers from depression after the birth,beginning to have dangerous feelings of love towards her child....
Oy Vay Maria
Character: Harry Perlman
Jewish boy loves Catholic girl - will love triumph over family objections?...
Sink the Bismarck!
Character: Henry - First Workman, 'Prince of Wales'
The story of the breakout of the German battleship Bismarck—accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen—during the early days of World War II. The Bismarck and her sister ship, Tirpitz, were the most powerful battleships in the European theater of World War II. The British Navy must find and destroy Bismarck before it can escape into the convoy lanes to inflict severe damage on the cargo shipping which was the lifeblood of the British Isles. With eight 15 inch guns, it was capable of destroying...
The Surgeon's Knife
Character: Dr. Hearne
A doctor becomes the victim of extortionists when one of his patients dies under questionable circumstances....
Time, Gentlemen, Please!
Character: Joseph Spink
Because of its high productivity and "almost" 100 per cent employment, the town of Hayhoe, England is expecting a visit from the Prime Minister. The "almost" is because of Dan Dance (Eddie Byrne), an old rogue who would rather drink and philosophize than work. The Village Council are determined to have a perfect record so they connive to have the old man put into the alms-house which has been unoccupied for many years, where he must abide by rules laid down 400 years ago. A new Vicar arrives and...
No Kidding
Character: Mr. Rockbottom
A young couple, David and Catherine Robinson, has to turn their large country house into a money-making proposition. Their solution is to invite the kids of the rich and famous to spend a summer enjoying all the loving care and attention they miss at home. After the youngsters arrive, David quickly realizes what the offensive little punks need is some real discipline, and so the summer begins....
A Weekend with Lulu
Character: Stationmaster
Fred, Tim and Deirdre plan a fun weekend break on the coast. What they didn't make allowances for was the company of Deirdre's mother who insists on coming along as her daughter's chaperone....
The Adventurers
Character: Col. Gutierrez (as Sidney Tafler)
The wealthy playboy son of an assassinated South American diplomat discovers that his father was murdered on orders of the corrupt president of the country- a man who was his father's friend and who, in fact, his father had helped put into power. He returns from living a jet-set life in Europe to lead a revolution against the government, only to find out that things aren't quite as black and white as he'd assumed....
Interpol
Character: Curtis
Spurred on by the death of his drug-addicted sister at the hands of ruthless narcotics kingpin Frank McNally, U.S. drug enforcement agent Charles Sturgis embarks on an investigation that takes him from New York to London, Lisbon, Rome, Naples and finally Athens in pursuit of McNally's shapely associate, Gina Broger....
Venetian Bird
Character: Boldesca
Private eye Edward Mercer travels to Venice to locate a man due a reward for his aid in the war. Shortly after arriving, he becomes the prime suspect in the murder of his local contact. In his quest to clear his name, Mercer uncovers a conspiracy. Even the local magistrate seems to be working against him, and Mercer begins to suspect the man he came to find is behind it all....
Dance Hall
Character: Manager
Episodic tale of four factory girls and their various romances at the local dance hall in Chiswick, London. Unusual at the time, the film tells its story from a feminine perspective. Today, it is mainly recognised for its post-war London atmosphere, with bomb sites, trolleybuses and rationing....
The Crowded Day
Character: Alex Fraser
One day in the lives and loves of the staff in a large department store....
No Room at the Inn
Character: Stranger
A group of children are evacuated during world war two into the care of an alcoholic woman....
Guilty?
Character: Camino
Convinced that a wartime resistance heroine is innocent of a murder charge, Nap Rumbold, a solicitor / private detective travels to France searching for evidence to clear her name....
The Square Ring
Character: 1st Wiseacre
Boxing drama following the lives of 5 different fighters and their reasons for becoming boxers....
Too Many Crooks
Character: Solicitor
Accident-prone Fingers runs a pretty unsuccessful gang. They try and rob wealthy but tricky Billy Gordon - who distrusts banks and fears the Inland Revenue - but he sees Fingers and the boys off. So they decide to kidnap his daughter, only to end up with his wife Lucy. Gordon makes out he couldn't be more pleased, spuring Lucy to take charge of the hopeless bunch of villains....
Nightmare for a Nightingale
Character: Sam Meadows
An opera singer finds out her late husband isn't actually dead when he shows up at her apartment. In the heat of the moment, she kills him but his body mysteriously disappears....
Five Golden Hours
Character: Alfredo
A petty crook gallantly consoles wealthy widows and is doing all right in his chosen profession until he meets and falls in love with a lovely baroness, who knows all about get-rich-quick schemes....
Pews
Character: Kugelmann
Liftchick has a problem. As beadle to the synagogue he is responsible for getting ten men together to say Kaddish, but it is holiday-time and the town is empty....