Charles Stapley
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Charles Henry Stapley (23 July 1925 – 8 January 2011) was an English actor, best known for playing Ted Hope in the television
soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...
''
Crossroads Crossroads, crossroad, cross road or similar may refer to: * Crossroads (junction), where four roads meet Film and television Films * ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa * ''Cross Roads'' (film), a 1930 Brit ...
''. He also appeared in various theatrical roles, in ''The Benny Hill Show'', and in a television version of ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' in which he took 26 different roles.


Early life

Charles Stapley was born in Ilford, Essex, the son of a business executive father who worked for the
Blue Circle Blue Circle Industries was a British public company manufacturing cement. It was founded in 1900 as the Associated Portland Cement Manufacturers Ltd through the fusion of 24 cement works, mostly around on the Thames and Medway estuaries, toget ...
cement company in London. He was educated at
Ilford County High School Ilford County High School (often abbreviated to ICHS) is a selective secondary grammar school for boys located in the town of Barkingside of the London Borough of Redbridge. The school was formerly called ''Park High Grade School'' and as a res ...
and Brighton and Hove Grammar School after the family moved to
Portslade Portslade is a western suburb of the city of Brighton and Hove, England. Portslade Village, the original settlement a mile inland to the north, was built up in the 16th century. The arrival of the railway from Brighton in 1840 encouraged rapid de ...
, East Sussex.


Career

Stapley served in the Royal Air Force at the end of the Second World War. He then worked in the film distribution division of the
Rank Organisation The Rank Organisation was a British entertainment conglomerate founded by industrialist J. Arthur Rank in April 1937. It quickly became the largest and most vertically integrated film company in the United Kingdom, owning production, distrib ...
. He subsequently acted in the theatre before moving into television, including playing 26 different roles in
Associated Television Associated Television was the original name of the British broadcaster ATV, part of the Independent Television (ITV) network. It provided a service to London at weekends from 1955 to 1968, to the Midlands on weekdays from 1956 to 1968, and ...
's series ''
The Adventures of Robin Hood ''The Adventures of Robin Hood'' is a 1938 American Technicolor swashbuckler film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was produced by Hal B. Wallis and Henry Blanke, directed by Michael Curtiz and William Keighley, and stars Errol Flynn, Olivia d ...
'' in 1955–56. He appeared in ''
The Benny Hill Show ''The Benny Hill Show'' is a British comedy television show starring Benny Hill that aired on the BBC and ITV (from 1969) between 15 January 1955 and 1 May 1989. The show consisted mainly of sketches that were full of slapstick, mime, parody ...
'', but was best known for playing Ted Hope in the television soap opera ''
Crossroads Crossroads, crossroad, cross road or similar may refer to: * Crossroads (junction), where four roads meet Film and television Films * ''Crossroads'' (1928 film), a 1928 Japanese film by Teinosuke Kinugasa * ''Cross Roads'' (film), a 1930 Brit ...
''.


Personal life

Stapley's first wife was
Nan Winton Nancy Wigginton (6 November 1925 – 11 May 2019), known professionally as Nan Winton, was a British broadcaster, best known for being the first female newsreader to read the national news on BBC television. Career Winton (born Nancy Wigginton ...
,
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...
television's first female newsreader. They were divorced in 1962. He had two further marriages, both of which ended in divorce. He had a son and a daughter from each of his first two marriages. In November 1978, whilst married to his third wife, he met Beatrice Mills and they soon started an affair. She eventually left her husband Mark Mills, and moved to London to be with Stapley. Six years later, her three children joined them after Mark Mills was jailed for fraud, and Stapley became their stepfather. The eldest, then 15, was
Heather Mills Heather Anne Mills (born 12 January 1968) is an English former model, businesswoman and activist. Mills first came to public attention in 1993 when she was a model and was involved in a traffic collision with a police motorcycle in London. T ...
, who would later call him "evil" and a "snooty actor". Stapley commented that "Heather is simply a very confused woman for whom reality and fantasy have become blurred". They "repeatedly clashed in print".


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stapley, Charles 1925 births 2011 deaths English male soap opera actors 20th-century English male actors English male stage actors People from Ilford People educated at Ilford County High School Royal Air Force personnel of World War II