Richard Gibson (born 1 January 1954) is an English actor, best known for his role as the archetypal
Gestapo
The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe.
The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one or ...
Officer
Herr Otto Flick
Herr may refer to:
* Herr (honorific), a German honorific
* Herr (surname)
* Herr (title), a German title
* Herr, Indiana, an unincorporated town in Perry Township, Boone County, Indiana, US
* Herr's Snacks
Herr's is an American brand of potato ...
in the
BBC hit sitcom series, ''
'Allo 'Allo!
''Allo 'Allo!'' is a British sitcom television series, created by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, starring Gorden Kaye, Carmen Silvera, Guy Siner and Richard Gibson. Originally broadcast on BBC1, the series focuses on the life of a Fren ...
''.
Career
Gibson was born in
Kampala
Kampala (, ) is the capital and largest city of Uganda. The city proper has a population of 1,680,000 and is divided into the five political divisions of Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division, and ...
,
Uganda
}), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The south ...
, before the country gained independence from the UK. He was a chorister at
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...
and educated at
St Paul's Cathedral School,
Radley College
Radley College, formally St Peter's College, Radley, is a public school (independent boarding school for boys) near Radley, Oxfordshire, England, which was founded in 1847. The school covers including playing fields, a golf course, a lake, an ...
near
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England, on the River Thames. Historically the county town of Berkshire, since 1974 Abingdon has been admi ...
, and the
Central School of Speech and Drama.
He took part in ''
'Allo 'Allo!
''Allo 'Allo!'' is a British sitcom television series, created by David Croft and Jeremy Lloyd, starring Gorden Kaye, Carmen Silvera, Guy Siner and Richard Gibson. Originally broadcast on BBC1, the series focuses on the life of a Fren ...
'' during the vast majority of the series. Dressed in an ankle-length leather coat and with the obligatory stiff-legged limp and walking stick, Herr Flick spent his life suppressing peasants, seducing
Helga, the German town Commandant's assistant, and vainly trying to get his hands on the original of the painting ''
The Fallen Madonna with the Big Boobies'' by Van Klomp.
Gibson then toured with the group when ''Allo 'Allo!'' transferred to the stage and had successful tours both in the United Kingdom and abroad. The stage version of the show gave rein to his other skills, and he was able to demonstrate his mastery of the violin.
He played Sunning in the 1971 BBC1 television series ''
Tom Brown's Schooldays''. His first film role of note was in the 1971 film ''
The Go Between'', in which he played Marcus Maudsley, school friend of Leo Colston (
Dominic Guard
Dominic Guard (born 18 June 1956) is an English child psychotherapist and author, formerly an actor.
Early life
Guard was born in London on 18 June 1956. His father, Philip Guard, was an English stage actor, his mother, Charlotte Mitchell, ...
) who passed messages between
Julie Christie
Julie Frances Christie (born 14 April 1940) is a British actress. An icon of the Swinging Sixties, Christie is the recipient of numerous accolades including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. Sh ...
and
Alan Bates
Sir Alan Arthur Bates (17 February 1934 – 27 December 2003) was an English actor who came to prominence in the 1960s, when he appeared in films ranging from the popular children's story '' Whistle Down the Wind'' to the " kitchen sink" dram ...
, and he also played young Tony Farrant in the 1973 film version of ''
England Made Me''. He has also played a wide variety of roles on stage and the TV screen, and in 2006 was a regular guest on ''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was f ...
's'' World Cup Pubcast, where he usually took the role of Herr Flick, providing a more biased view of the proceedings. In 2003, he guest starred in the ''
Doctor Who'' audio drama ''
Flip-Flop''.
He has divided his time between Ireland and the UK, and continues to work in films, television, and theatre as well as working as a sub-editor for newspaper publications.
Owing to the enduring popularity of ''Allo! 'Allo!'', he and
Kim Hartman
Kim Lesley Hartman (born 11 January 1952) is an English actress, best known for her role as Private Helga Geerhart in the BBC television sitcom Allo 'Allo!'' (1982–1992).
She was educated at The King's High School for Girls, Warwick. ...
have formed a Flick and Helga fan club and made numerous cabaret appearances, using songs and sketches in character. In 2012, as guest speakers on the Fred Olsen ships, ''Boudicca'' and ''Balmoral'', they travelled to the Canary Islands and up the Amazon River. In 2014, they were also guest performers at the Malfest Arts Festival in Malpas, Cheshire, and appeared at the War and Peace Show at the Hop Farm in Kent. In 2014 Gibson appeared with fellow ''Allo, 'Allo!'' cast members at the Sofia International Film Festival.
Gibson also works as a radio actor, scriptwriter and voiceover artist.
He has claimed that, while a chorister, he sang at the
funeral service
A funeral is a ceremony connected with the final disposition of a corpse, such as a burial or cremation, with the attendant observances. Funerary customs comprise the complex of beliefs and practices used by a culture to remember and respect t ...
of Sir
Winston Churchill in 1965, and was paid
£2 10s
The 10s decade ran from January 1, AD 10, to December 31, AD 19.
In Europe, the decade saw the end of the Early Imperial campaigns in Germania when Roman forces led by Germanicus defeated Germanic tribes in the Battle of Idistaviso in 16 AD. I ...
for his work on the day.
References
External links
*
Interview at Den of Geek
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gibson, Richard
1954 births
20th-century English male actors
21st-century English male actors
Alumni of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama
British male comedy actors
English male film actors
English male television actors
Living people
People educated at Radley College
People educated at St. Paul's Cathedral School
People from Kampala