Guy Middleton

Lean, jaunty British character actor with military-style moustache and easy manner who specialised in playing dapper scoundrels, philanderers, dissipated bon vivants and con artists in a career lasting three and a half decades. Born in Hove, East Sussex, he spent two years working on the London stock exchange before making his move to acting. On stage from 1928, he was initially cast as outright villains. He landed his first worthy part in the George Formby musical comedy Keep Fit (1937), establishing his typical screen personae playing the role of Brian Curtis in Terence Rattigan's French Without Tears (1940) (having previously appeared in the original London stage production in November 1936). Ironically, Middleton seems to have relished his lady-killer image in real life since he was at the time involved with the wife of co-star Rex Harrison - himself no stranger to extra-marital affairs.