--- name: "Richard Vernon" canonical: "https://film.one/person/richard-vernon" fi1m_id: "richard-vernon" imdb_id: "nm0894710" tmdb_id: 47000 wikidata_id: "Q327963" roles: ["Actor"] born: "7 March 1925" died: "4 December 1997" reviewed_on_fi1m: 6 average_fi1m_score: 84 average_as: "actor" average_over: 6 updated: "2026-10-07T11:42:22.419817+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." --- # Richard Vernon ## Identity Richard Vernon - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/richard-vernon - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** richard-vernon - **IMDb ID:** nm0894710 - **TMDB ID:** 47000 - **Wikidata ID:** Q327963 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Vernon, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q327963, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0894710/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/47000 Actor. Born 7 March 1925 in Reading, Berkshire, England, UK. Died 4 December 1997. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 7 March 1925, Reading, Berkshire, England, UK - **Died:** 4 December 1997 - **Active:** 1963–1988 - **Average Fi1m score:** 84, as actor, over 6 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1960s 86 (3), 1980s 81 (3) - **Fi1m against the critics:** 82 to 77 across 4 titles - **Score spread:** 5 at 80+, 1 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 4 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 3, Comedy 2, Action 1, Action & Adventure 1, Adventure 1, Family 1 - **Screen time:** 8 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $214m across 3 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Vernon, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q327963, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0894710/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/47000 ## Streaming the US now - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*Yes Minister*](https://film.one/tv/yes-minister.md) (89), [*The Servant*](https://film.one/film/the-servant.md) (89) - **HBO Max:** [*A Hard Day's Night*](https://film.one/film/a-hard-days-night.md) (86) - **Peacock:** [*The Storyteller*](https://film.one/tv/the-storyteller.md) (82) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Richard Vernon > Richard Vernon spent nearly fifty years playing men who had already been chairman of something. Cast as middle-aged while still in his thirties, he made pomposity funny by never once acknowledging it, and British comedy leaned on him for a generation. Richard Vernon walks into a room already disapproving of it. The long face, the bald head, the voice that has never needed to raise itself: he looks like a man who was born a senior civil servant, and directors cast him accordingly. He was in his thirties when they started giving him tired peers and cold colonels, and he never argued. By his forties he had grown into the parts, which is an odd thing to say about an actor, but it is the shape of his career. He trained at the Central School after Navy service in the war, worked on stage, and turned up in film and television from the late 1950s. The 1960s fixed him. In *The Servant* (1963) he is Lord Willie Mounset, one of the titled visitors to Joseph Losey's household; in *A Hard Day's Night* (1964) he is the city gent who shares a train compartment with the Beatles and would rather not; in *Goldfinger* (1964) he is Colonel Smithers, briefing Bond on gold smuggling. Three films, one type, and he is good in all of them. The 1980s are where most viewers will know him. He was Sir Desmond Glazebrook, the banker in *Yes Minister* (1980), a man who appears whenever Lynn and Jay need someone to take money seriously and nothing else. Our review of the series did not stop to mention him, and that is fair; the part is small. But watch how he does it. He never plays a line as a joke, and the laugh arrives anyway. In *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* (1981) he carried Slartibartfast, the planet-builder who designs fjords, from radio to television. In *Gandhi* (1982) he is Sir Edward Gait, one more official in a white uniform. In *The Storyteller* (1988) he plays a King, and John Hurt does the talking. We will admit to enjoying the Smithers scene in *Goldfinger* more than a briefing about bullion has any right to be enjoyed. Vernon explains gold as if it were the most interesting thing in the world, which to Smithers it plainly is, and he does not look at Bond once with anything warmer than professional tolerance. That is the whole method. He plays the man's seriousness straight and lets us find it absurd on our own. The complaint is obvious and true: it was a narrow run of parts, and he was in it from the start, because early baldness put him at the head of the table before he had earned the seat. We cannot think of a warm man he played and we can think of a dozen chilly ones. But the type existed because Britain kept producing the men, and somebody had to play them without winking. He did it on film, television and radio until 1996, and there are still evenings when a repeat comes on, the camera finds him at the end of a boardroom, and the room is instantly more believable than it was a second before. ## Biography Richard Vernon (1925–1997) was a British actor who appeared in numerous films and television programmes, frequently in aristocratic or supercilious roles. He trained at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and made his London stage debut in 1950. His film credits include Colonel Smithers in *Goldfinger* (1964), a city gent in *A Hard Day's Night* (1964), Sir Edward Gait in *Gandhi* (1982), and roles in *The Pink Panther Strikes Again* (1976), *Evil Under the Sun* (1982) and *Village of the Damned* (1960). On television he played Sir Desmond Glazebrook in *Yes Minister* (1980) and its sequel series, the King in an episode of *The Storyteller* (1988), and Slartibartfast in the television adaptation of *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* (1981). He died on 4 December 1997. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, tvmaze.com.* ## On Fi1m (6) - *The Storyteller* (1988), Fi1m 82, as King — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-storyteller.md) - *Gandhi* (1982), Fi1m 73, as Sir Edward Gait — [page](https://film.one/film/gandhi.md) - *Yes Minister* (1980), Fi1m 89, Actor — [page](https://film.one/tv/yes-minister.md) - *A Hard Day's Night* (1964), Fi1m 86, as Man on Train — [page](https://film.one/film/a-hard-days-night.md) - *Goldfinger* (1964), Fi1m 82, as Smithers — [page](https://film.one/film/goldfinger.md) - *The Servant* (1963), Fi1m 89, as Lord Willie Mounset — [page](https://film.one/film/the-servant.md) ## Complete filmography (136) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Loch Ness* (1996), as Aged Professor - *Class Act* (1994), series, as Sir Horace Mainwaring - *The Return of the Borrowers* (1993), series, as Mr. Pott - *Frank Stubbs Promotes* (1993), series, as Lord Dunstable - *Detectives on the Edge of a Nervous Breakdown* (1993), as Suspect - *The Borrowers* (1992), series, as Mr. Pott - *Blood and Dust* (1992), as Heraclius - *A Masculine Ending* (1992), as Miriam's father - *The Camomile Lawn* (1992), series, as The General - *You Rang, M'Lord?* (1990), series, as The Earl of Swaffham - *A Gentleman's Club* (1988), series, as George - *The Storyteller: A Story Short* (1988), as King - *The Storyteller* (1988), series, as King — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-storyteller.md) - *A Month in the Country* (1987), as Colonel Hebron - *Paradise Postponed* (1986), series, as Sir Nicholas Fanner - *Casualty* (1986), series, as Dr. RIchard Payton — Fi1m 68, [page](https://film.one/tv/casualty.md) - *Paradise Postponed* (1986), as Sir Nicholss Fanner - *Ladies in Charge* (1986), series, as Lord Brompton - *Lady Jane* (1986), as The Marquess of Winchester - *The Return of the Antelope* (1986), series, as Mr. Garstanton - *Lovejoy* (1986), series, as Roger Nettleton - *Yes, Prime Minister* (1986), series, Actor - *A Still Small Shout* (1985), as Thompson - *Roll Over Beethoven* (1985), series, as Oliver Purcell - *Lytton's Diary* (1985), series, as Duncan Anderson - *Leaving* (1984), series, as Mr. Chessington - *Night Train to Murder* (1984), as Uncle Felix - *C.Q.* (1984), as Sir Roland Hall - *Waters of the Moon* (1983), as Colonel Selby - *Witness for the Prosecution* (1982), as Brogan-Moore - *Gandhi* (1982), as Sir Edward Gait — Fi1m 73, [page](https://film.one/film/gandhi.md) - *Something in Disguise* (1982), series, as Herbert Browne-Lacey - *Evil Under the Sun* (1982), as Flewitt - *Legacy of Murder* (1982), series, as Roland Tolhurst - *The Box* (1981), as (voice) - *The Kamikaze Ground Staff Reunion Dinner* (1981), as Makato - *The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy* (1981), as Slartibartfast - *Nanny* (1981), series, Actor - *The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy* (1981), series, as Slartibartfast - *Oh! Heavenly Dog* (1980), as Quimby Charles - *A Question of Guilt* (1980), series, as Judge - *Yes Minister* (1980), series, Actor — Fi1m 89, [page](https://film.one/tv/yes-minister.md) - *The Human Factor* (1979), as Sir John Hargreaves - *Roger of the Raj* (1979), as Lord Bartlesham - *The Sandbaggers* (1978), series, as C - *Strangers* (1978), series, as Sir Geoffrey - *The After Dinner Joke* (1978), as Mr. Price - *Do You Remember?* (1978), series, as Lord Greenham - *Sammy's Super T-Shirt* (1978), as Mr. Becket - *The Sunday Drama* (1977), series, as Tom Hampton - *The Pink Panther Strikes Again* (1976), as Fassbender - *The Duchess of Duke Street* (1976), series, as Major Toby Smith-Barton - *Adventures of a Taxi Driver* (1976), as Gentleman (uncredited) - *Ripping Yarns* (1976), series, as Lord Bartlesham - *Rumpole of the Bailey* (1975), series, as Lionel Leering - *Sporting Chance* (1975), as Sir Maxwell Dean (archive footage) - *Affairs of the Heart* (1974), series, as Colonel Chart - *In the Steps of a Dead Man* (1974), as George Cornfield - *Dial M for Murder* (1974), series, as The Chief - *Between the Wars* (1973), series, as Morton - *The Satanic Rites of Dracula* (1973), as Col. Mathews - *A Friend Indeed* (1973), as Sir Lionel Hibury - *Thriller* (1973), series, as George Cornfield - *Last of the Summer Wine* (1973), series, Actor - *On Call* (1972), as Dr. Edwards - *The Adventurer* (1972), series, as Sir Richard McKenzie - *Follow the Yellow Brick Road* (1972), as Dr Whitman - *Night Duty* (1972), as Stanley - *The Sextet* (1972), series, as Baldwin, Stanley, Sir Lionel Compton, Dr Whitman, Stoker Leishman, Colin, Alban Gascoyne, Thomas Ramsdale - *Upstairs, Downstairs* (1971), series, as Major Cochrane-Danby — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/tv/upstairs-downstairs.md) - *Justice* (1971), series, as Lord Tilling - *Will Amelia Quint Continue Writing 'A Gnome Called Shorthouse'?* (1971), as Lewis - *The Persuaders!* (1971), series, as Sir Maxwell Dean - *The Guardians* (1971), series, as Dace - *Brett* (1971), series, as Sutherland - *Persuasion* (1971), series, as Admiral Croft - *One Brief Summer* (1971), Actor - *She'll Follow You Anywhere* (1971), as Andrew Coombes - *Song of Norway* (1970), as Councilman - *Play for Today* (1970), series, as Mr. Price - *UFO* (1970), series, as Pa Stone - *Goodbye, Mr. Chips* (1969), as Chairman of the Board of Governors (uncredited) - *Destiny of a Spy* (1969), as Colonel - *Hadleigh* (1969), series, as Sir Geoffrey Osborne - *Department S* (1969), series, as Colonel Loring - *Frankenstein* (1968), as Professor Krempe - *Cause of Death* (1968), as Colonel O'Dwyer - *Journey to the Unknown* (1968), series, as Sir Gerald Walters - *ITV Playhouse* (1967), series, as Lord Augustus Lorton - *The Fellows* (1967), series, as Edwin Oldenshaw - *Mystery and Imagination* (1966), series, as Professor Krempe - *End in Tears* (1966), Actor - *The Early Bird* (1965), as Sir Roger Wedgewood - *BBC Play of the Month* (1965), series, as Henry Gore-Browne, Raoul - *Thirty-Minute Theatre* (1965), series, as Colonel O'Dwyer - *The Secret of My Success* (1965), as Lord Hetherby - *The Man in Room 17* (1965), series, as Oldenshaw - *The Intelligence Men* (1965), as Sir Edward Seabrook - *The Yellow Rolls-Royce* (1964), as Race Course Official (uncredited) - *The Tomb of Ligeia* (1964), as Dr. Vivian - *The Counterfeit Constable* (1964), as Lord Brisburn - *The Wednesday Play* (1964), series, as Brigadier Samson, Lord Oscar - *Goldfinger* (1964), as Smithers — Fi1m 82, [page](https://film.one/film/goldfinger.md) - *A Hard Day's Night* (1964), as Man on Train — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/a-hard-days-night.md) - *Hot Enough for June* (1964), as Roddinghead - *The Servant* (1963), as Lord Willie Mounset — Fi1m 89, [page](https://film.one/film/the-servant.md) - *We Joined the Navy* (1963), as Government Official at Enquiry (uncredited) - *Just for Fun* (1963), as Prime Minister - *Accidental Death* (1963), as Johnnie Paxton - *The Saint* (1962), series, as Sir John Ripwell - *Reach for Glory* (1962), as Dr. Aldrich - *The Share Out* (1962), as John Crewe - *Studio 4* (1962), series, as Mr Endworth - *Cash on Demand* (1961), as Pearson - *The Younger Generation* (1961), series, as The Major - *Drama 61-67* (1961), series, as Colonel Johnson - *Jango* (1961), series, as Parkinson - *The Avengers* (1961), series, as Lord Matterley — Fi1m 83, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-avengers-1961.md) - *Maigret* (1960), series, Actor - *The Odd Man* (1960), series, as Charles Ormiston - *Clue of the Twisted Candle* (1960), as Viney - *Village of the Damned* (1960), as Edgar Hargraves - *Sapphire* (1959), as Doctor at Crime Scene - *No Hiding Place* (1959), series, as Charles Lacey - *Probation Officer* (1959), series, as Lessing - *The Heart of a Man* (1959), as Manager - *The Siege of Pinchgut* (1959), as Under Secretary - *The Adventures of William Tell* (1958), series, as Merchant - *Indiscreet* (1958), as Leading man in play - *Theatre Night* (1957), series, as Charles Pleydon, MP - *Armchair Theatre* (1956), series, as Lewis - *ITV Play of the Week* (1955), series, as Sir Hector Rose - *Dixon of Dock Green* (1955), series, as Mr. Pascoe, Mr. Fellowes - *Street of Shadows* (1953), Director, Screenplay - *Hallmark Hall of Fame* (1951), series, as Brogan-Moore - *Sunday Night Theatre* (1950), series, as Egeon --- © 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/richard-vernon