Donald Sinden

Plymouth, Devon, England, UK

Biography

​Sir Donald Alfred Sinden CBE (born 9 October 1923) is an English actor of theatre, film and television. Sinden was born in Plymouth, Devon, England, on 9 October 1923. The son of Alfred Edward Sinden and his wife Mabel Agnes (née Fuller), he grew up in the Sussex village of Ditchling, where their home ('The Limes') doubled as the local chemist shop. He was married to actress Diana Mahony from 1948 until her death in 2004. He lives near Tenterden, Kent. The couple had two sons: actor Donald Sinden, who died of lung cancer in 1996, and Marc Sinden who is a West End theatre producer. Early career He trained as an actor at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art and made his first stage appearance at the Brighton Little Theatre (of which he later became President) in January 1941, playing Dudley in George and Margaret. He broke into professional acting after appearing with the Mobile Entertainments Southern Area company in modern comedies for the armed forces during the Second World War. Rank Organisation In 1953 he was contracted for seven years to the Rank Organisation at Pinewood Studios and subsequently starred in many outstanding British films of the 1950s including The Cruel Sea, Mogambo, Doctor in the House, Above Us The Waves, Doctor at Large, The Siege of Sidney Street, Twice Round the Daffodils and with a very young Adam Faith in Mix Me a Person. Description above from the Wikipedia article Donald Sinden, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Movies

Judge John Deed is a British legal drama television series produced by the BBC in association with One-Eyed Dog for BBC One. It was created by G.F. Newman and stars Martin Shaw as Sir John Deed, a High Court judge who tries to seek real justice in the cases before him. It also stars Jenny Seagrove as the barrister Jo Mills, frequently the object of Deed's desire. A pilot episode was broadcast on 9 January 2001, followed by the first full series on 26 November 2001. The sixth and last series concluded on 18 January 2007. The programme then went on an indefinite break after Shaw became involved in another television programme, and he and Seagrove expressed a wish for the format of the series to change before they filmed new episodes. By 2009, the series had officially been cancelled. The six series produced make it the longest-running BBC legal drama. The factual accuracy of the series is often criticised by legal professionals and journalists; many of the decisions taken by Deed are unlikely to happen in a real court. The romanticised vision of the court system created by Newman caused a judge to issue a warning to a jury not to let the series influence their view of trials—referring to an episode where Deed flouts rules when called up for jury duty. Another episode led to complaints about biased and incorrect information about the MMR vaccine, leading the BBC to ban repeats of it in its original form. All six series have been released on DVD in the UK.

More info
Judge John Deed
2001