Barry Foster
Birthday: Born in 1927-08-21 in Beeston, Nottinghamshire, England, UK
Deathday: 2002-02-11
Barry Foster was an English actor who had an extensive career in film, radio, stage and television over almost 50 years. He was best known for playing Kaiser Wilhelm II in Fall of Eagles (1974), Order Wingate (1976), the title character in the British crime series Van der Valk (1972–1992) and Bob Rusk in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972).
TV Credits
Van der Valk
Character: Commissaris Simon "Piet" Van der Valk
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....
Sir Francis Drake
Character: Tom Brewster
Sir Francis Drake was a British adventure television series starring Terence Morgan as Sir Francis Drake, commander of the sailing ship the Golden Hind. As well as battles at sea, sword fights, the series also deals with intrigue at Elizabeth's court, often caused by Spaniard, Mendoza....
Fall of Eagles
Character: Kaiser Wilhelm II
"Fall of Eagles" is a 13-part British television drama aired by the BBC in 1974. The series portrays historical events from 1848 to 1918, dealing with the collapse of the ruling dynasties of Austria-Hungary (the Habsburgs), Germany (the Hohenzollerns) and Russia (the Romanovs)....
The Troubleshooters
Character: Robert Driscoll
The Troubleshooters is a British television series made by the BBC between 1965 and 1972, created by John Elliot. During its run, the series made the transition from black and white to colour transmissions. The series was based around an international oil company – the "Mogul" of the title. The first series was mostly concerned with the internal politics within the Mogul organisation, with episodes revolving around industrial espionage, internal fraud and negligence almost leading to an acciden...
Maigret
Character:
BBC series based on the novels by Georges Simenon which starred Rupert Davies as Inspector Maigret, a French police detective who preferred to watch and listen in order to solve crimes. The series ran from 1960-63 on British television....
Playhouse
Character: Bellamy
BBC2 Playhouse is a one hour UK anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas created by Sara Pia Anderson and produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Among its many notable guest stars were Helen Mirren, Daniel Day-Lewis, Judi Dench, Liam Neeson, Paul Scofield, Deborah Kerr, Ben Kingsley, Donald Pleasence, Brenda Blethyn, and Peggy Ashcroft. It premiered in the UK on March 13, 1974 and ran through May 20, 1983....
Bergerac
Character: Howard Bailey
Jim Bergerac is a detective sergeant in The Foreigners Office who likes to do things his own way. While dealing with his own personal demons Bergerac has a knack of finding trouble, and sometimes causing it....
Public Eye
Character: Gerald Gurney-Stuart
Public Eye is a British television series that ran from 1965 to 1975. It was produced by ABC Television for three series, and Thames Television for a further four series. The series depicted the investigations and cases handled by the unglamorous enquiry agent Frank Marker, an unmarried loner who is in his early forties when the series begins. In the words of an ABC trailer for the third series: "Marker isn't a glamorous detective and he doesn't get glamorous cases—he doesn't even get glamorous ...
Dalgliesh
Character: Maxim Howarth
Centred on the cases of P. D. James' gentleman detective Adam Dalgliesh. In addition to his career as a policeman, Dalgliesh is also a published poet and an intensely private man....
Screen Two
Character: Derek
Series of single made-for-television dramas....
Divorce His, Divorce Hers
Character: Donald Trenton
The dissolution of an 18-year marriage, seen first from his point-of-view and then from hers....
Roger Roger
Character: Pieter Eugene
Roger Roger is a BBC television comedy-drama written by John Sullivan. The series was about a mini-cab firm called Cresta Cabs. The pilot aired in 1996 and there were three subsequent series on BBC1 in 1998, 1999 and 2003....
Death of an Expert Witness
Character: Dr. Maxim Howarth
When Dr. Edwin Lorrimer, a forensic scientist working at a private laboratory is found killed, Detective Superintendent Adam Dalgliesh is sent to investigate. Dalgliesh had been in the area a few months previously investigating the murder of a young woman found in an abandoned car. There are several suspects: Lorrimer's subordinate, Clifford Bradley, who despises him; the new head of the laboratory, Maxim Howarth, who is jealous of his sister's relationship with him; a colleague, Paul Middlemass...
Smiley's People
Character: Saul Enderby
Called out of retirement to settle the affairs of a friend, Smiley finds his old organization, the Circus, so overwhelmed by political considerations that it doesn't want to know what happened. He begins to follow up the clues of his friends past days, discovering that the clues lead to a high person in the Russian Secret service, and a secret important enough to kill for....
The Wednesday Play
Character: Dan Sankey
The Wednesday Play is an anthology series of British television plays which ran on BBC1 from October 1964 to May 1970. The plays were usually written for television, although adaptations from other sources also featured. The series gained a reputation for presenting contemporary social dramas, and for bringing issues to the attention of a mass audience that would not otherwise have been discussed on screen....
Sunday Night Theatre
Character: Trooper Bates
Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty...
Sunday Night Theatre
Character: Supply Assistant Brooker
Sunday Night Theatre was a long-running series of televised live television plays screened by BBC Television from early 1950 until 1959. The productions for the first five years or so of the run were re-staged live the following Thursday, partly because of technical limitations in this era, and the theatrical basis of early television drama. Some of the earliest collaborations between Rudolph Cartier and Nigel Neale were produced for this series, including Arrow to the Heart and Nineteen Eighty...
Doomwatch
Character: Dr. Carson
Doomwatch is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC, which ran on BBC 1 between 1970 and 1972. The series was set in the then present-day, and dealt with a scientific government agency led by Doctor Spencer Quist, responsible for investigating and combating various ecological and technological dangers. The series was followed by a film adaptation produced by Tigon British Film Productions and released in 1972, and a revival TV film was broadcast on Channel 5 in 1999....
Movie Credits
Frenzy
Character: Robert Rusk
London is terrorized by a vicious sex killer known as The Necktie Murderer. Following the brutal slaying of his ex-wife, down-on-his-luck Richard Blaney is suspected by the police of being the killer. He goes on the run, determined to prove his innocence....
Sea of Sand
Character: Cpl. Matheson
A small British army team is sent deep behind enemy lines to destroy a German petrol dump as part of the preparation for a major attack in the North African campaign. Sea of Sand was distributed in the US in a shortened version, Desert Patrol....
Battle of Britain
Character: Sqd. Leader Edwards
In 1940, the Royal Air Force fights a desperate battle against the might of the Luftwaffe for control of the skies over Britain, thus preventing the Nazi invasion of Britain....
The Wild Geese
Character: Thomas Balfour
A British multinational company seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator in central Africa. It hires a band of (largely aged) mercenaries in London and sends them in to save the virtuous but imprisoned opposition leader who is also critically ill and due for execution. Just when the team has performed a perfect rescue, the multinational does a deal with the vicious dictator leaving the mercenary band to escape under their own steam and exact revenge....
The Whistle Blower
Character: Charles Grieg
A war veteran tries to investigate the murder of his son who was working as a Russian translator for the British intelligence service during the Cold War. He meets a web of deception and paranoia that seems impenetrable......
Maurice
Character: Dean Cornwallis
After his lover rejects him, Maurice attempts to come to terms with his sexuality within the restrictiveness of Edwardian society....
Yangtse Incident: The Story of H.M.S. Amethyst
Character: Petty Officer McCarthy
While sailing lawfully up the Yangste in 1949, the British warship Amethyst found its return to the open sea blocked by Communist Chinese shore batteries that unexpectedly opened fire. In charge, Lietenant Commander Kerans was not however prepared for his crew and his ship to remain as a hostage for the Chinese to use as an international pawn....
The Interior Decorator
Character: Bellamy
An interior decorator takes a millionaire's wife on a guided tour of her new home....
Ryan's Daughter
Character: Tim O'Leary
The wife of an Irish school teacher is branded a traitor when she falls for a British officer who is part of an occupying force in 1917 Ireland....
The Family Way
Character: Joe Thompson
Young newlyweds Arthur and Jenny Fitton want nothing more than to get their marriage started on the right foot. But before they can depart for their honeymoon in Spain, they have to spend their first night together at the home of Arthur's parents. The couple are prevented from having any intimacy, but it only gets worse. They find out that their trip to Spain is canceled, which sets the tone for a rocky few weeks....
Robbery
Character: Frank
In this fictionalised account of the Great Train Robbery, career criminal Paul Clifton plans an audacious crime: the robbery of a mail train carrying millions in cash....
Twisted Nerve
Character: Gerry Henderson
Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession....
Sweeney!
Character: Elliott McQueen
When one of Regan's snouts complains that his girlfriend's recent suicide was murder, the flying squad detective feels compelled to investigate. He uncovers a conspiracy that reaches the heart of the government, and finds himself fitted up, suspended and under the scrutiny of Special Branch....
Rancid Aluminium
Character: Doctor
Pete Thompson thinks he has it all. However, following the death of his father his close friend and accountant reveals the company he has been left is bust and the only way out is to do business with the Russian mafia. His life and heart are on the line when he leave to restore the fortunes of the family firm....
King and Country
Character: Lt. Webb
During World War I, Army Private Arthur James Hamp is accused of desertion during battle. The officer assigned to defend him at his court-martial, Captain Hargreaves, finds out there is more to the case than meets the eye....
The Guru
Character: Chris
Britain's top pop artiste, Tom Pickle, travels to Bombay, India, circa 1960s to learn to play the sitar from renowned maestro Ustad Zafar Khan....
The Wind in the Willows
Character: Boatman
Jailed for his reckless driving, rambunctious Mr. Toad has to escape from prison when his beloved Toad Hall comes under threat from the wily weasels, who plan to build a dog food factory on the very meadow sold to them by Toad himself....
Worm in the Bud
Character: Edgar Malone
An elderly man living on his own in Belfast rouses the suspicions of his neighbors....
After Pilkington
Character: Derek
The quiet life of Oxford professor James Westgate is shattered when he is introduced to Penny, the wife of his crass new colleague....
To Catch a King
Character: Max Winter
Robert Wagner plays an American who owns a Lisbon nightclub and Teri Garr is a slightly dippy chanteuse who has stumbled across a Nazi plot to kidnap the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, living at the time (1942) in Portugal....
Succubus
Character: Mike
A family settles in an old castle with plans to, among other things, turn its former cemetery into a swimming pool. However, soon they find out that, in ancient times, pagan rituals took place there involving the sacrifice of young virgins. When an evil entity starts luring young boy Mark into killing himself in order to become the next sacrificial offering, something must be done to save him. Written by Bob Baker and Dave Martin who wrote many episodes of Dr. Who....
Sea Fury
Character: Vincent
The captain of a tugboat harboured off a Spanish village is lured into a romantic involvement with a young girl at the behest of her father, in the hope of getting his hands on the vessel. Meanwhile, a handsome English sailor, signs on to the boat and before long he and the girl fall for one another. Meanwhile a sinking freighter carrying explosive cargo has to be salvaged.......
King of the Wind
Character: Mr. Williams
In 1727, an Arab colt is born with the signs of the wheat ear and the white spot on his heel: evil and good. And thus begins the life of Sham. He is a gift to the King of France, through a series of adventures with his faithful stable boy, Agba, he becomes the Godolphin Arabian, the founder of one of the greatest thoroughbred racing lines of all time....
Playback
Character:
A young policeman becomes involved with a glamorous German woman in London, to his cost....
A Woman Called Golda
Character: Major Orde Wingate
The story of the Russian-born, Wisconsin-raised woman who rose to become Israel's prime minister in the late 1960s and early 1970s....
Random Moments in a May Garden
Character: David
A middle-aged couple give a dinner party to their friends. In the room is a photograph of another group of people, taken in a garden in May....
Where the Difference Begins
Character: Richard
A family gather together as their mother lies dying. Death brings conflicts into sharp focus - not least between brothers Edgar and Richard…...
Adventures of a Brown Man in Search of Civilization
Character: Narrator (voice)
Nirad C. Chaudhuri expounds his views on culture, history, religion and society from a comparative perspective....
Beyond the Next Mountain
Character: Alan Montforce
The story of how the Gospel of John changed the course of history for a tribe of headhunters....
Heat and Dust
Character: Major Minnies
Anne is investigating the life of her grand-aunt Olivia, whose destiny has always been shrouded with scandal. As Anne delves into the history of her grand-aunt, she is led to reconsider her own life....
Dunkirk
Character: Don R
A British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches. Some come forward to help, others were less willing....
Danger on Dartmoor
Character: Mr. Green
The adventures of children lost in fog on Dartmoor, who encounter a wild dog, an escaped convict, and other dangers....
The Last Word
Character: Edward
Leo, the owner of the stocking product "Discrete", has driven his company into the wall; the company is virtually bankrupt....
The Story of 'Frenzy'
Character: Self
Documentary about the making of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Frenzy'....
Hotel du Lac
Character: David Simmonds
Romantic novelist Edith Hope so horrifies her friends that they banish her to the solitude of a Swiss hotel. She decides to work out her exile by observing her fellow guests....
Three Kinds of Heat
Character: Norris
Three friends persecute a gang of criminals from Harlem to the parties of the High Society of London....
A Quiet Day in Belfast
Character: John Slattery
Andrew Angus Dalrymple's realistic portrait of a British soldier, his Irish lover and her twin sister amidst the strife of Northern Ireland....
Old Times
Character: Deeley
Kate and Deeley are married and live in the country. They are joined by Kate's friend, Anna, and talk of the past. Although it is a past they have shared, their memories of it are not always the same....
How Many Miles to Babylon?
Character: Major Glendinning
Wealthy Alexander Moore and working-class Jerry Crowe are childhood friends and in 1914 find themselves in the same Army unit - Alex as an officer and Jerry as a private. They still remain close, however, until Jerry is court-martialed for desertion, and Alex is put in charge of the firing squad....
Party Time
Character: Gavin
At a posh cocktail party, various plans are made, and a missing guest turns up late....
The Battle of the River Plate
Character: Bill Roper - Capt. Bell's Messenger, HMS Exeter
In the early years of the World War II, the Royal Navy is fighting a desperate battle to keep the Atlantic convoy routes open to supply the British Isles, facing the great danger posed by the many German warships, such as the Admiral Graf Spee, which are scouring the ocean for cargo ships to sink....
Orde Wingate
Character: Orde Wingate
The story of the military career of Orde Wingate, one of the most controversial and unorthodox Allied commanders of World War II. The guerrilla tactics he developed while in Palestine helped prepare the future leaders of the Israeli Defense Forces....
Rabbit Pie Day
Character: The Major
As World War II draws to a close thousands of Russian soldiers overtaken by the Allied advance in Europe find themselves in England - and they like it. The major of one particular camp foresees problems should they have to go back; but as he says, 'They're only going home, after all!' - but home to what?...
Practical Experience
Character: Bellamy
'I'm unusual. I really want to be an architect. Always have done. Always wanted to build fine buildings and fine cities where people can work and eat and sleep and be happy. But the rules of the game say before you can do that you've got to start a firm. Employ people. Turn it into a career. I like architecture. I hate careers. The minute you make it a career you build a ladder and people want to climb it. Sometimes they stand on your fingers. It's hard to draw with flattened fingers. Spoils you...
Surprise Package
Character: US Marshal
Comic crime caper, set on a Greek island, starring Yul Brynner and Mitzi Gaynor....
Inspector Clouseau
Character: Addison Steele
Detective Inspector Jacques Clouseau is borrowed from the Surete on special assignment for Scotland Yard in hopes that a fresh outlook will help the government recover the loot from the Great Train Robbery, which is being used to underwrite a new crime wave. What they don't count on, however, is having more than one Clouseau on the job....
The Baby and the Battleship
Character: First Sailor at Dance
After a quayside mix-up with the Italian family of his fiancée, Able Seaman Knocker White finds himself literally left holding the baby. Unable to return it before his ship sails he enlists the help of best mate Puncher Roberts to smuggle the child aboard. But babies are surprisingly demanding and gradually the whole crew is drawn into helping keep it fed and washed - and undiscovered. Even so, the officers above deck start to puzzle over the increasingly strange happenings on board....