English Heritage Blue Plaque for Actor Alastair Sim
Acclaimed stage and film actor, Alastair Sim (1900 – 1976) has today (23 July 2008) been commemorated with an English Heritage blue plaque at 8 Frognal Gardens, London, NW3, where he lived for over 20 years (from 1953 until 1975). It was at this address that Sim experienced his greatest fame and both his daughter Merlith McKendrick and his protégé George Cole have attested to the actor’s happiness whilst living there. The plaque was unveiled by Merlith herself.
Alastair Sim was born in Edinburgh in 1900, the fourth child of Isabella McIntyre and Alexander Sim, a tailor and clothier. He studied analytical chemistry at Edinburgh University, but left in order to join the Officers’ Training Corps. In 1925, Sim became the Fulton lecturer in elocution at New College, Edinburgh, a post which he held for five years. In addition to this, he founded his own School of Drama and Speech Training. It was during this period that Alastair met his future wife, Naomi Plaskitt, who was a constant and enthusiastic support to him throughout his career.
Sim appeared in a number of amateur shows in Edinburgh, but for some time he had been eager to work in professional theatre both as an actor and director. At the relatively late age of thirty, he was given the double role of the messenger and sentry in the Savoy Theatre’s production of Othello which featured Peggy Ashcroft. He then moved permanently to London and spent two seasons at the Old Vic, where Harcourt Williams saw his promise as a comedian.
Sim made his screen debut in Riverside Murder in 1935. He soon became a familiar and popular actor, appearing in a series of comedies and comedy-thrillers such as Wedding Group (1936) and The Squeaker (1937) before returning to the stage. At the Malvern drama festival he played one of the leading roles in What Say They? (1940) by the Scottish dramatist James Bridie. Over the next decade, Alastair acted in and directed Bridie’s plays until the latter’s death in 1951. The ‘magical alchemy’ of their creative relationship resulted in productions such as Mr Bolfry (1943), Dr Angelus (1947) and Mr Gillie (1950). After Bridie’s death, Alastair was keen to find a new playwright with whom to work, and he subsequently directed three plays by Michael Gilbert.
Sim acted in the first Ealing Comedy, Hue and Cry, in 1946 and continued to appear in many films throughout the 1950s; including the films for which he is perhaps best remembered, The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950) with Margaret Rutherford, Scrooge (1951), The Belles of St Trinian’s (1954) and Blue Murder at St Trinian’s (1957), in which he played the headmistress Miss Fritton. So popular had his ‘relishingly idiosyncratic’ (this quotation comes from Times obit – it’s the word they used) acting become that in 1950 he was voted the winner of the British Cinema Exhibitor’s popularity poll. His film career declined somewhat after this busy period but he still appeared on stage to great acclaim, notably in William Golding’s The Brass Butterfly (1958). He achieved two great successes at the Chichester Festival, firstly in 1969 with The Magistrate and then in 1973 with Dandy Dick, both productions which later reached the West End. Alastair died of cancer in London at the age of seventy-six.
Sim’s daughter, Merlith, said: ‘It was a very happy childhood, full of fun, laughter, affection and constant discussion. I was slightly embarrassed by people constantly staring at Alastair, but I just put it down to his baldness. My own favourites of his films are Scrooge, The Green Man, An Inspector Calls and The Belles of St Trinians - all so very different – and, on stage, The Magistrate must be the tops.’
In his obituary in The Times, Sim was described as ‘an uncommon comedian because what he did, however extravagant, appeared with him to be perfectly natural; he could invest a character with an air of wiliness combined with oracular dignity that could have served for the Shakespearian Ulysses.’ He also had the inherent ability to attract the sympathy of the audience even when playing a villain, such as in The Green Man (1956). His tremendous popularity was evident in 1948 when he was elected rector of Edinburgh University by a majority much larger than that achieved by any of the political and military figures who had preceded him. When he retired as rector he was made an honorary LLD of Edinburgh University in 1951, and was appointed CBE in 1953. He was offered a knighthood but declined it on the grounds that he did not wish to be called Sir Alastair.
For press information, please contact Helen Bowman, English Heritage Corporate Communications, 0207 973 3294 / 07789927584 or
helen.bowman@english-heritage.org.uk
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