English film, television and stage actor. West’s craggy looks ensured a career as a character actor rather than a leading man. He began his career as an Assistant Stage Manager at the Wimbledon Theatre in 1956, and followed this with several seasons of repertory theatre. He acted at the Picadilly Theatre in 1959 and was with the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1965 at Stratford where he appeared in The Comedy of Errors, Timon of Athens, The Jew of Malta, Love’s Labour’s Lost, and Peter Hall’s outstanding production of The Government Inspector at the Aldwych Theatre with Paul Schofield, Eric Porter, Donald Burton, Stanley Lebor, Bruce Condell, John Corvin, and Tim Wylton, among others. He was Artistic Director of the Forum Theatre, Billingham from 1980–81 and was appointed Director-in-Residence at the University of Western Australia in 1982. Having spent years as a familiar face who never quite became a household name, his big chance came with the major television series, Edward the Seventh (1975), in which he played the title role and his real-life sons, Samuel and Joseph, played the sons of King Edward VII as children. Other major roles have included parts in the films, Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), The Day of the Jackal (1973), The Thirty Nine Steps (1978), Masada (1981) and Cry Freedom (1987). In lighter vein, West starred as patriarch Bradley Hardacre in Granada TV’s satirical Northern super-soap Brass over three seasons (1982–1990), and made a memorable appearance as Professor Fury in A Very Peculiar Practice in 1986. West also made a brief appearance in the Miss Marple series in 1985, starring Joan Hickson as the redoubtable Miss Jane Marple, in A Pocket Full of Rye as the notorious Rex Fortescue. In 1997, he played Gloucester in the BBC television production of King Lear. In 2001, West played the older Maurice in Iris, while his actor son, Samuel West, played young Maurice. In 2002, he made a guest appearance in the BBC Radio 4 series The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. From 2001-2003, he played the grumpy and frequently volatile Andrew in the BBC drama series Bedtime with Sheila Hancock playing his long-suffering wife, Alice. At Christmas 2007, he joined the cast of sitcom Not Going Out as recurring character Geoffrey Adams, the father of two central characters. He has reprised this role in two episodes since. He is president of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and a supporter of the charity Cancer Research UK. In 2008, he starred in Harold Pinter’s “The Lover” & “The Collection” at the Comedy Theatre in London. In 2010, he appears alongside John Simm and Jim Broadbent in BBC series Exile, written by BAFTA winning writer Danny Brocklehurst.
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