--- name: "Charles Gray" canonical: "https://film.one/person/charles-gray" roles: ["Actor"] born: "29 August 1928" died: "7 March 2000" reviewed_on_fi1m: 2 average_fi1m_score: 60 average_as: "actor" average_over: 2 updated: "2026-09-18T11:10:44.438126+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Charles Gray Actor. Born 29 August 1928 in Bournemouth, Dorset, England, UK. Died 7 March 2000. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 29 August 1928, Bournemouth, Dorset, England, UK - **Died:** 7 March 2000 - **Active:** 1967–1971 - **Also known as:** Чарльз Грей, Donald Marshall Gray - **Average Fi1m score:** 60, as actor, over 2 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1960s 62 (1), 1970s 58 (1) - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Gray_(actor), https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q961187, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0336509/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/10074 ## Fi1m on Charles Gray > Charles Gray had a voice made for narration and spent his career lending it to villains, narrators and men who thought highly of themselves. He is a pleasure to listen to and, as Blofeld, almost impossible to fear. Charles Gray always sounds as though he has read the script already and found it slightly beneath him. The voice is the whole instrument: deep, unhurried, every vowel given its full weight, the delivery of a man who has never in his life been interrupted. Directors borrowed it for narration and for dubbing other actors, Jack Hawkins among them, and he brings it unaltered to every part, whether he is summoning the devil or introducing *The Rocky Horror Picture Show* (1975) as its Criminologist. He seldom raises it. He does not need to. He came to acting in his mid-twenties and learned the trade on stage, at Regent's Park, the Old Vic and Stratford, which is where the diction comes from. Film and television followed from the late 1950s, and 1967 was the year that changed things: *The Night of the Generals* and a small Bond part as Dikko Henderson in *You Only Live Twice*. The decade after was the busy one, more than forty productions between 1968 and 1979, opening with Mocata, the satanic priest of *The Devil Rides Out* (1968), and filled with the toffs, cads, crooks and braggarts that became his stock in trade. Later there was television, most durably as Mycroft Holmes opposite Jeremy Brett in *The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes* (1984). The voice is also the problem. As Ernst Stavro Blofeld in *Diamonds Are Forever* (1971) he plays the arch-villain as a club bore explaining the wine list, and we never believed he could hurt anyone. We sat through his scenes waiting to be frightened and were instead mildly entertained, the way one is by a stranger at dinner who knows too much about claret; the affectation that makes him funny as a narrator makes him harmless as a killer, and the delivery keeps tipping into camp. We found more menace in the film's two courteous hitmen than in their employer. It is a fair complaint about the whole career, not just the one film: audiences admired him more than they were moved by him, on stage as well as on screen. There is a case for him as a villain, and by reputation it rests on Mocata in *The Devil Rides Out*, where the ice is said to hold. But he is at his best when the part wants a man enjoying himself slightly more than the situation warrants: the Criminologist, Mycroft, anyone required to explain rather than threaten. If you want to see what he could do, choose one of those, and listen. ## Biography Charles Gray (born Donald Marshall Gray) was an English actor. Born in Bournemouth, he trained with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at the Old Vic after leaving a job as an estate agent's clerk. He changed his professional name in the mid-1950s to avoid confusion with another actor named Donald Gray. Gray appeared as Dikko Henderson in the James Bond film *You Only Live Twice* (1967) and as Ernst Stavro Blofeld in *Diamonds Are Forever* (1971). He is also known for playing Mycroft Holmes in the Granada television series *Sherlock Holmes* (1984) and its sequels, and the Criminologist in *The Rocky Horror Picture Show* (1975). He worked extensively in film, television and on stage from the late 1950s until the 1990s. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (2) - *Diamonds Are Forever* (1971), Fi1m 58, as Ernst Stavro Blofeld — [page](https://film.one/film/diamonds-are-forever.md) - *You Only Live Twice* (1967), Fi1m 62, as Dikko Henderson — [page](https://film.one/film/you-only-live-twice.md) ## Complete filmography (143) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Longitude* (2000), series, as Admiral Balchen - *The Tichborne Claimant* (1999), as Arundell - *One Man Band* (1999), as Tailor - *Madson* (1996), series, as Sir Ranald Hearnley - *Scarlett* (1994), series, as The Judge - *The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes* (1994), series, as Mycroft Holmes - *Tales from the Poop Deck* (1992), series, as Admiral Dennis De'Ath - *Absolute Hell* (1991), as Maurice Hussey - *Performance* (1991), series, as Maurice Hussey - *Shrinks* (1991), series, as Lord Rissington - *Firestar: First Contact* (1991), as Commodore Vandross - *The Paper Man* (1990), series, as Prime Minister - *Harry and Harriet* (1990), as Satan - *Blackeyes* (1989), series, as Sebastian - *The Nineteenth Hole* (1989), series, as Col. Westray - *Blind Justice* (1988), series, as Judge Langtry - *Small World* (1988), series, as Rudyard Parkinson - *Hannay* (1988), series, as Commander Nevil - *The New Statesman* (1987), series, as Roland Gidleigh-Park - *Dreams Lost, Dreams Found* (1987), as Jason Klein - *Cariani and the Courtesans* (1987), as Narrator - *Hammer: The Studio That Dripped Blood* (1987), as Narrator (voice) - *Porterhouse Blue* (1987), series, as Sir Cathcart D'Eath - *Tickets for the Titanic* (1987), series, as The Earl of Albany - *The Return of Sherlock Holmes* (1986), series, as Mycroft Holmes - *ScreenPlay* (1986), series, as Storyteller(voice) - *Casey at the Bat* (1986), as Mr. Dent - *The Gourmet* (1986), as Manley Kingston - *Tall Tales & Legends* (1985), series, as Mr Dent - *C.A.T.S. Eyes* (1985), series, as Sir Jack Fenn - *The Wind in the Willows* (1984), series, as The Stranger (voice) - *Sherlock Holmes* (1984), series, as Mycroft Holmes - *The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes* (1984), series, as Mycroft Holmes - *The Comedy of Errors* (1983), as Solinus, Duke of Ephesus - *An Englishman Abroad* (1983), as Claudius (Charles) - *The Jigsaw Man* (1983), as Sir James Chorley - *Charles & Diana: A Royal Love Story* (1982), as Earl Spencer - *Troilus & Cressida* (1981), as Pandarus - *Bergerac* (1981), series, as Bart Bellow - *Ticket to Heaven* (1981), as Musician - *Shock Treatment* (1981), as Judge Oliver Wright - *We, the Accused* (1980), series, as Sir Hayman Drewer - *The Mirror Crack'd* (1980), as Bates, The Butler - *Schalcken the Painter* (1979), as Narrator - *Mrs. R's Daughter* (1979), as Rogers - *Heartland* (1979), series, as Mr. Wheeler - *The House on Garibaldi Street* (1979), as Gen. Lischke - *Ike* (1979), as Gen. "Freddie" de Guingand - *Ike* (1979), series, as Gen. 'Freddie' de Guingand - *Julius Caesar* (1979), as Julius Caesar - *Richard II* (1978), as Duke of York - *The BBC Television Shakespeare* (1978), series, as Duke of York, Julius Caesar - *The Legacy* (1978), as Karl Liebnecht - *Across a Crowded Room* (1978), as Harold Charles - *Hazell* (1978), series, as Brownhill - *Six Characters in Search of an Author* (1977), as The Director - *Three Dangerous Ladies* (1977), as Santander - *Silver Bears* (1977), as Charles Cook - *The Sunday Drama* (1977), series, as Delaforce - *The Galton & Simpson Playhouse* (1977), series, as Charles - *The Seven-Per-Cent Solution* (1976), as Mycroft Holmes - *Seven Nights in Japan* (1976), as Henry Hollander - *The Island* (1976), as Mr. Santander - *The Philanthropist* (1975), as Braham - *The Rocky Horror Picture Show* (1975), as The Criminologist - *The Venturers* (1975), series, as Tony Challon - *Night Is the Time for Killing* (1975), as Hilary Vance - *Churchill's People* (1974), series, as Duke of Portland - *Dial M for Murder* (1974), series, as Hugo Vardon - *The Beast Must Die* (1974), as Bennington - *Fall of Eagles* (1974), series, as Rodzianko - *On the Game* (1974), as Narrator (voice) - *Tales That Witness Madness* (1973), as Nicholas (Clinic Link Episodes segment) (voice) (uncredited) - *Orson Welles' Great Mysteries* (1973), series, as Mikail Zigorin - *The Song of Songs* (1973), series, as Count Von Mertzbach - *Thriller* (1973), series, as Hilary Vance - *Theatre of Blood* (1973), as Solomon Psaltery (voice) (uncredited) - *The Upper Crusts* (1973), series, as Lord Robin Seacroft - *The Millionairess* (1972), as Adrian Blenderbland - *The Merchant of Venice* (1972), as Antonio - *A Ghost Story for Christmas* (1971), series, as Narrator - *The Cherry Orchard* (1971), as Gayev - *Diamonds Are Forever* (1971), as Ernst Stavro Blofeld — Fi1m 58, [page](https://film.one/film/diamonds-are-forever.md) - *Upstairs, Downstairs* (1971), series, as Sir Edwin Partridge — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/tv/upstairs-downstairs.md) - *The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes* (1971), series, as Eugene Valmont - *When Eight Bells Toll* (1971), as Sir Anthony Skouras (voice) (uncredited) - *Doctor at Large* (1971), series, as Man - *Play for Today* (1970), series, as Oxlade - *Menace* (1970), series, as Micky - *Oh In Colour* (1970), series, as Actor - *The Executioner* (1970), as Vaughan Jones - *Cromwell* (1970), as The Earl of Essex - *The Merchant of Venice* (1969), as Antonio - *Softly Softly: Task Force* (1969), series, as Her Majesty's Inspector Sharp, Tailor - *The File of the Golden Goose* (1969), as Harrison, 'The Owl' - *Mosquito Squadron* (1969), as Air Commodore Hufford - *W. Somerset Maugham* (1969), series, as The Storyteller - *The Nine Ages of Nakedness* (1969), as Narrator - *The Devil Rides Out* (1968), as Mocata - *The Secret War of Harry Frigg* (1968), as Gen. Adrian Cox-Roberts - *Omnibus* (1967), series, as Narrator - *ITV Playhouse* (1967), series, as Admiral Ranking - *The Man Outside* (1967), as Charles Griddon - *You Only Live Twice* (1967), as Dikko Henderson — Fi1m 62, [page](https://film.one/film/you-only-live-twice.md) - *The Night of the Generals* (1967), as General von Seidlitz-Gabler - *BBC Play of the Month* (1965), series, as Charles Strickland, Richard Greatham, Field-Marshall Allenby, Gayev, Antonio, Lord Augustus, Adrian Blenderbland, Mr. Beebe, Sir Harcourt Courtly - *Thirty-Minute Theatre* (1965), series, as Detective Inspector Waugh, Inspector Waugh, Bertrand Asquith, Knox - *The Troubleshooters* (1965), series, as Michael Rennane - *Masquerade* (1965), as Benson - *Tea Party* (1965), as Willy - *Love Story* (1963), series, as John Trewardine, Bender - *Out of This World* (1962), series, as Abel Jones - *Suspense* (1962), series, as Verdon - *Drama 61-67* (1961), series, as David - *Maigret* (1960), series, as Mazeron - *Man in the Moon* (1960), as Leo - *Michael Shayne* (1960), series, as Dr Bill Logan - *Danger Man* (1960), series, as Alex, Zameda - *The Entertainer* (1960), as Columnist - *Armchair Mystery Theatre* (1960), series, as Madingley, Quill - *Somerset Maugham Hour* (1960), series, as Major Templeton, Tom Ramsey - *Tommy the Toreador* (1959), as Gomez - *The Desperate Man* (1959), as Lawson - *The Four Just Men* (1959), series, as Sadik Bey, Paul Lederer, Dominguez - *No Hiding Place* (1959), series, as Sir Miles - *Probation Officer* (1959), series, as Richard Bates - *Crime Sheet* (1959), series, as Actor - *Whicker's World* (1959), series, Acting - *Follow a Star* (1959), as Taciturn Man at Party (uncredited) - *The Invisible Man* (1958), series, as Thal - *Heart of a Child* (1958), as Fritz Heiss - *I Accuse!* (1958), as Captain Brossard - *Sword of Freedom* (1958), series, as Varenza, Pierre De Foix - *Bachelor Father* (1957), series, as Frank Gibbs - *Theatre Night* (1957), series, as Capt. Cyril Mavors - *Boyd Q.C.* (1956), series, as Tickle - *Armchair Theatre* (1956), series, as Philip Comely, Stuart Marlowe, Felix Hull - *Highway Patrol* (1955), series, as Officer Edwards (#1430) - *The Adventures of Robin Hood* (1955), series, as Sir Blaise - *Gunsmoke* (1955), series, as Sheriff, Tyler, Bob Gringle - *Producers' Showcase* (1954), series, as Escalus- Prince of Verona - *Hallmark Hall of Fame* (1951), series, as Bounine - *Sunday Night Theatre* (1950), series, as Waring --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/charles-gray