Maurice Denham (born as William Maurice Denham on December 23 1909 at Beckenham, Kent; died July 24 2002) was an English character actor who appeared in over 100 television programmes and films throughout his long career.
Originally trained as an elevator engineer, Denham eventually became an actor in 1934 and appeared in live television broadcasts as early as 1938. He would continue to perform in that medium until 1997.
He first made his name in radio series such as ITMA and Much Binding in the Marsh, and later provided all the voices for the 1955 animated version of Animal Farm. His other film credits include 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956), Night of the Demon (1957), Two-Way Stretch (1960), Sink the Bismarck! (1960), H.M.S. Defiant (1962), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), The Day of the Jackal (1973) and 84 Charing Cross Road (1986).
Among his television appearances were Talking to a Stranger (1967), The Lotus Eaters (1972-3), All Passion Spent with Dame Wendy Hiller (1986), Behaving Badly (1989), Inspector Morse (1991) and the Sherlock Holmes story The Last Vampyre (1993).
He made a guest appearance in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who in the 1984 serial The Twin Dilemma, the first story to star Colin Baker in the title role as the Sixth Doctor. He later appeared in the Doctor Who radio serial The Paradise of Death in 1993 alongside Jon Pertwee.
As The Honourable Mr Justice Stephen Rawley in the BBC prison comedy Porridge, he ends up in the same cell with Fletcher, whom he sentenced.
In further radio work, he starred in a BBC Radio 4 version of the Oldest Member, based on stories by P. G. Wodehouse, from 1994 to 1999, and also as Rumpole in Rumpole: The Splendours and Miseries of an Old Bailey Hack.
He was awarded O.B.E. (officer of the British Empire) in 1992.
Stage career dates back to 1934.
Stage-struck as a boy, he nevertheless signed on for a four-year apprenticeship with Waygood-Otis in order to please his parents. He helped install the lifts at BBC Broadcasting House, and also maintained those of Jessie Matthews (I) and of the future royal family. The latter led to an interesting talking-point at a royal broadcast of the radio show in which he made his name.
Famous for being the voice of the story teller in "The Oldest Member", a popular BBC Radio 4 comedy about a golf club reminiscing about his and his friends' golfing exploits.
Kept notebooks of every acting job he did.
