George Cole (actor)

George Edward Cole (22 April 1925 – 5 August 2015) was an English actor whose career spanned 75 years. He was best known for playing Arthur Daley in the long-running ITV comedy-drama show Minder and Flash Harry in the early St Trinian's films.

Early life

Cole was born in Tooting, South London. He was placed for adoption at ten days old, and adopted by George and Florence Cole. They lived in Tooting, moving five miles away to a council flat in Morden when Cole was five years old. The senior George suffered from epilepsy, a double hernia, and the after-effects of gas poisoning during the First World War. He had several jobs which were curtailed by his ill-health, including pulling a heavy roller for Wandsworth Council. In Cole's opinion, the exertion contributed to his father's death.

Cole attended secondary school in nearby Morden. He left school at 14 to be a butcher's boy and had an ambition to join the Merchant Navy, but landed a part in a touring musical and chose acting as a career. He recalled that he was in Dublin on the day of Britain's entry into the Second World War, and witnessed an effigy of Neville Chamberlain being publicly burned without interference from the police.

Career

Aged 15, Cole was cast in the film Cottage to Let (1941) opposite Scottish actor Alastair Sim. Sim liked Cole, and agreed with his family to take in Cole and his mother to their home. Acting as his mentor, Sim helped Cole lose his Cockney accent; Cole stayed with the Sim family until he was 27. He later attributed his career success to Sim, with whom he appeared in a total of 11 films, ending with a filmed version for television of The Anatomist (1956), from the play by James Bridie.