Anthony Valentine

Anthony Valentine (17 August 1939 – 2 December 2015) was an English actor known for his television roles: the ruthless Toby Meres in Callan, the sinister Major Mohn in Colditz, and the title character in Raffles.

Early life and education

Valentine was born in Blackburn and attended Acton County Grammar School, London.

Career

Valentine worked as a child actor for the BBC, and appeared at the age of 10 in the film No Way Back (1949), and aged 12 in The Girl on the Pier (1953). He played Harry Wharton in the 1950s BBC children's adaptation of Billy Bunter (1955–57) – he initially played the character of Bob Cherry in the episodes where Harry Wharton was played by John Charlesworth.

Valentine appeared in a television production of Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman, with Laurence Olivier as Borkman and Irene Worth as his wife, as part of ITV's Play of the Week series.

He was best known for his television roles as ruthless Toby Meres in the series Callan (1967–72), sinister Luftwaffe Officer, Major Horst Mohn in the BBC drama Colditz (1974) and the eponymous Raffles (1975–1977).

Other television appearances included A for Andromeda (1961), Z-Cars (1972), The Avengers (1967, 1968), Softly, Softly (1969), Department S (1970), Budgie (1971), Codename (1970), Space: 1999 (1975), Raffles (1976), Minder (1979, 1980) playing Maurice, a professional gambler, Tales of the Unexpected (1980, 1982), Airline (1982) (in the first episode as Squadron Leader Dickie Marlowe of the RAF), Bergerac (1983), Robin of Sherwood (1984, 1985), Boon (1989), Lovejoy (1986, 1991), The House of Eliott (1991), The Bill (1998), The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (in The Illustrious Client, 1991), New Tricks and Waking the Dead (2002). He also narrated the three Wildlife Explorer documentary films and played a South London bookmaker in the film Performance (1970). He was also the voice of "Dr. X" on Queensrÿche's seminal 1988 album, Operation: Mindcrime.

Further television work included an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot (2006), episodes of The Commander (2005, 2006, 2008), in which he played Commissioner Edward Sumpter, and an episode of Heartbeat (2006). Other television roles are as Nuremberg Prison Commandant Burton C. Andrus in the 2006 BBC docudrama Nuremberg: Nazis on Trial, and Jimmy "The Gent" Vincent in ITV's The Last Detective (2007). In September 2009 he joined the cast of the British soap Coronation Street as George Wilson.

In theatre he appeared in the West End plays No Sex Please We're British, Sleuth, Half a Sixpence and 'Art', and in the premiere performance of Arnold Wesker's Chicken Soup with Barley, playing the part of Ronnie. His most recent appearance was in Separate Tables at The Mill at Sonning; he wrote and directed The Waiting Game for the same theatre.

On 12 November 2005 Valentine became a patron of the Thwaites Empire Theatre in his birthplace, Blackburn. He died on 2 December 2015 at the age of 76, after suffering from Parkinson's disease for several years.