Noel Howlett

English actor (1902–1984)

Noel Howlett

Born	(1902-12-22)22 December 1902 Bexley, Kent, England
Died	26 October 1984(1984-10-26) (aged 81) Hammersmith, London, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1936–1984

Noel Howlett (22 December 1902 – 26 October 1984) was an English actor,^[1] principally remembered as the incompetent headmaster, Morris Cromwell, in the ITV 1970s cult television programme Please Sir!^[2] He was the subject of infatuation by Deputy Head Doris Ewell, played by Joan Sanderson.^[3]

Howlett was born in Bexley, Kent,^[1] and began his career as Richard Greatham in Noël Coward's Hay Fever. At Northampton Repertory Theatre in 1930 he played Sherlock Holmes. He also appeared as Mr Williams in the 1948 film The Winslow Boy, starring Robert Donat.^[4] At Stratford-on-Avon in 1953, he played Old Gobbo (father to Donald Pleasence's Launcelot Gobbo) in The Merchant of Venice, Edward IV (brother to Marius Goring's Richard III), Baptista in The Taming of the Shrew and Gloucester in King Lear.^[5]

An early TV role was portraying a vicar in the 1958/59 BBC series Quatermass and the Pit.^[6] He appeared as Professor Rushton in a one-off 1967 edition ("Mission Highly Improbable") of The Avengers and as the Reverend Simon Blanding in a one-off 1967 edition ("Dead Man's Shoes") of Man in a Suitcase.^[1] Other screen appearances include the 1960s TV shows Softly, Softly and Danger Man. He also appeared in one 1976 episode ("I Talk to the Trees") of the BBC situation comedy The Good Life as slightly eccentric allotment gardener Mr Wakeley.^[7]

He also frequently broadcast and did a spell for the BBC as a member of their Drama Repertory Company (now the Radio Drama Company), one of his appearances being as Inspector Walter Neider in the 1965 Paul Temple radio episode, "Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery".^[8]

Selected filmography

Men Are Not Gods (1936) – Cashier (uncredited)
A Yank at Oxford (1938) – Tom Craddock
The Proud Valley (1940) – Company Clerk (uncredited)
George and Margaret (1940) – Malcolm
Jassy (1947) – Court Usher (uncredited)
The White Unicorn (1947) – Sir Humphrey Webster (uncredited)
When the Bough Breaks (1947) – Judge
The Mark of Cain (1947) – Judge (uncredited)
This Was a Woman (1948) – Chief Surgeon Barclay
Corridor of Mirrors (1948) – Psychiatrist (uncredited)
The Calendar (1948) – Lawyer
Good-Time Girl (1948) – Clerk
The Winslow Boy (1948) – Mr. Williams (uncredited)
Saraband for Dead Lovers (1948) – Count Platen
The Blind Goddess (1948) – Court Usher
Scott of the Antarctic (1948) – First Questioner
Once Upon a Dream (1949) – Solicitor
The Perfect Woman (1949) – Scientist
Your Witness (1950) – Martin Foxglove K.C. – Sam's Barrister
The Reluctant Widow (1950)
Laughter in Paradise (1951) – Clerk of the Court
Cloudburst (1951) – Johnson
Scrooge (1951) – First Collector
Father Brown (1954) – Auctioneer
One Good Turn (1955) – Jeweller
Handcuffs, London (1955) – Jeremiah Rugeley
Lust for Life (1956) – Commissioner Van Den Berghe
Nowhere to Go (1958) – Uncle Tom Howard (uncredited)
Serious Charge (1959) – Mr. Peters
The Scapegoat (1959) – Dr. Aloin
The Battle of the Sexes (1960) – Mr. White
Mary Had a Little... (1961) – Pottle
Victim (1961) – Patterson
Lawrence of Arabia (1962) – Vicar at St. Paul's (uncredited)
Tomorrow at Ten (1962) – Brain Specialist
Murder at the Gallop (1963) – Mr. Trundell
The Kiss of the Vampire (1963) – Father Xavier
Woman of Straw (1964) – Assistant Solicitor
The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) – Bishop
Quatermass and the Pit (1967) – Abbey Librarian
The Bushbaby (1969) – Rev. Barlow
Some Will, Some Won't (1970) – Endicott
Please Sir! (1971) – Mr. Cromwell
Mr. Selkie (1979) – Grandpa Ross
John Wycliffe: The Morning Star (1984) – Archbishop Sudbury

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Noel Howlett". Archived from the original on 12 July 2012.
^ "Peter Denyer: Actor who played the slow but lovable Dennis in 'Please". 26 September 2009. Archived from the original on 21 June 2022.
^ marcus, laurence. "PLEASE SIR! – A TELEVISION HEAVEN REVIEW". televisionheaven.co.uk.
^ "The Winslow Boy (1948)". Archived from the original on 21 September 2017.
^ "Noel Howlett". theatricalia.com.
^ "BFI Screenonline: Quatermass and the Pit (1958–59) Credits". screenonline.org.uk.
^ "I Talk to the Trees (1976)". Archived from the original on 12 October 2017.
^ "Paul Temple and the Geneva Mystery". 28 October 1965. p. 62 – via BBC Genome.