Name
Raymond Mason
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1924-04-17
Deathday
2022-04-16 (98 years old)
Place of Birth
Great Bridge, Staffordshire, England, UK
Biography
During Raymond Mason’s 20 years of acting in the ITV soap opera Crossroads, he played five different roles. “I don’t think anyone ever noticed,” he said, “and I don’t put it down to versatility.” For trained actors in the days when there was just a handful of drama colleges and fewer vocational courses, the pool of talent was by definition smaller. Many performers found themselves appearing more than once in the same programmes. For Raymond, the roles that he played on British television over 40-odd years numbered more than 1,000, and he appeared in scores of commercials at home and overseas.
One of the reasons for Raymond’s success was that he was comfortable in a supporting role and, crucially, adept at not stealing a scene. Through a combination of timing and practised self-effacement he allowed the main star, or joke, to shine. Modest about taking the credit, he effectively enabled the skit.
In the late 1960s and 1970s, when comedy was spread across just three TV channels, Raymond appeared in Saturday-night programmes including The Morecambe & Wise Show — he described the double act as “a joy”, The Two Ronnies and alongside Frankie Howerd, Les Dawson and the like. In a 1979 episode of Fawlty Towers called The Kipper and the Corpse, his character attempts to retrieve his hat while Basil is trying to hide the body of a deceased guest. John Cleese later described him as “one of my favourite actors”.
The middle child between an older and a younger sister, Raymond was born in 1924 in Great Bridge, Staffordshire, and brought up in Tettenhall near Wolverhampton.
His exposure to light entertainment started at an early age as his father, George, who had fought in the First World War, played the piano and organ, wrote his own compositions and was a local bandleader. After shutting up the fish and chip shop in Wolverhampton that he owned with his wife, Elizabeth, George would stuff a keyboard glockenspiel into his bike’s front carrier and set off
Known For
- 1975 Brannigan as Club Clerk (uncredited)
- 1976 Piano Lessons as Arthur
- 1971 The Loving Lesson as Bill
- 1970 Bartleby as Landlord
- 1981 Loophole as Porter
- 1987 Smith and Jones: The Home-Made Xmas Video as Neighbour
- 1980 Hamlet as Reynaldo
- 1979 Cries from a Watchtower as Peter Stenhouse
- 1982 John David as Registrar
- 1977 A Photograph as Mr. Lightbody
- 1974 Kiss Me and Die as Bill Gurney
- 1972 Young Winston as Man in Theatre Gallery (uncredited)
- 1971 The Wild Duck as Guest
- 1973 Alice Through the Looking Glass as Tweedledee
- 1972 Crown Court ( 3 episodes ) as Roy Pettit
- 1975 Fawlty Towers ( 1 episode ) as Mr. Zebedee
- 1990 Rita Rudner ( 6 episodes )
- 1982 Muck and Brass ( 6 episodes ) as Reg Palmer
- 1994 Wycliffe ( 1 episode ) as Len Rawlinson
- 1979 Terry and June ( 1 episode ) as Mr. Adams
- 1975 The Good Life ( 1 episode ) as Mr. Chipchase
- 1978 Enemy at the Door ( 1 episode ) as Bank Manager
- 1990 House of Cards ( 1 episode ) as Stoat
- 1991 The Darling Buds of May ( 1 episode ) as Salesman
- 1971 Budgie ( 1 episode ) as Clerk of The Court
- 1965 BBC Play of the Month ( 1 episode ) as Rent Steward
- 1967 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle ( 1 episode ) as Third Man
- 1977 Nicholas Nickleby ( 3 episodes ) as Charles Cheeryble
- 1990 The Chief ( 1 episode ) as Pig Farmer
- 1973 Hunters Walk ( 1 episode ) as Matt
- 1981 Sense and Sensibility ( 1 episode ) as Mr Harris
- 2003 The Afternoon Play ( 1 episode ) as Thommo
- 1964 Theatre 625 ( 1 episode ) as Telescreen Announcer
- 1974 Churchill's People ( 1 episode ) as Mr Newman
- 1966 Mystery and Imagination ( 1 episode ) as Dr Tomkins
- 1973 Centre Play ( 1 episode ) as Arthur
- 1972 Holly ( 1 episode ) as Solicitor
- 1979 The Legend of King Arthur ( 1 episode ) as Vavasour
- 1973 Thriller ( 1 episode ) as Bill Gurney
