Biography
Patrick Allen (born John Keith Patrick Allen) was a British actor and voice artist. Born in Nyasaland (now Malawi) in 1927, he was evacuated to Canada during the Second World War, where he studied at McGill University in Montreal and worked as a radio broadcaster before returning to Britain in 1953.
Allen made his film debut as Detective Pearson in Alfred Hitchcock's Dial M for Murder (1954). He appeared in numerous films including The Night of the Generals (1967), The Wild Geese (1978) and The Eagle Has Landed (1976), and took leading roles in the television series Crane (1963–65) and Brett (1971). He played Colonel Sebastian Moran in the Granada Sherlock Holmes series and provided the narrator's voice for Blackadder (1983) and an uncredited voice in Threads (1984). His authoritative voice was widely used for public information films and advertisements. Allen was married to actress Sarah Lawson.
