David Tomlinson
English actor (1917–2000)
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Key Takeaways
- David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson (7 May 1917 – 24 June 2000) was an English stage, film and television actor, singer and comedian.
- Early life Tomlinson was born in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, the son of Clarence Samuel Tomlinson (1883–1978), a well-respected London solicitor, and Florence Elizabeth, née Sinclair-Thomson (1890–1986).
- His father then secured him a job as a clerk at Shell Mex House.
- His career was interrupted when he entered Second World War service as a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF.
- He continued flying after the war.
David Cecil MacAlister Tomlinson (7 May 1917 – 24 June 2000) was an English stage, film and television actor, singer and comedian. Having been described as both a leading man and a character actor, he is primarily remembered for his roles with The Walt Disney Company as the patriarch father George Banks in Mary Poppins, hapless antagonist Peter Thorndyke in The Love Bug and the friendly con man Professor Emelius Browne in Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Tomlinson was posthumously inducted as a Disney Legend in 2002.
Early life
Tomlinson was born in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, the son of Clarence Samuel Tomlinson (1883–1978), a well-respected London solicitor, and Florence Elizabeth, née Sinclair-Thomson (1890–1986). He attended Tonbridge School and left to join the Grenadier Guards for 16 months. His father then secured him a job as a clerk at Shell Mex House.
His stage career grew from amateur stage productions to his 1940 film debut in Quiet Wedding. His career was interrupted when he entered Second World War service as a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF. During the war, he learned to fly in Canada and was assigned as a flying instructor in the UK, while also appearing in three more films. He continued flying after the war. On one occasion, a Tiger Moth plane he was piloting crashed into woodland near his back garden after he lost consciousness while performing aerobatics.
Film career
Tomlinson played Philip Rowe, one of the three British airmen escaping from a German POW camp, in the 1950 British Film The Wooden Horse.
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