Tom Chatto (born Thomas Chatto St George Sproule; 1 September 1920 – 8 August 1982) was an English actor who made numerous appearances on television, film, and stage between 1957 and his death in 1982.

Early life and career

Chatto is a great-grandson of

Andrew Chatto Andrew Chatto (11 November 184015 March 1913) was an English book publisher who was renowned for the cordial relations he maintained with his authors. Early life Chatto was born on 11 November 1840 at 55 Pratt Street, Camden Town London. His pa ...

(1840–1913) the founder of the publishers

Chatto and Windus Chatto & Windus is an imprint of Penguin Random House that was formerly an independent book publishing company founded in London in 1855 by John Camden Hotten. Following Hotten's death, the firm would reorganize under the names of his business ...

. According to a

London Palladium The London Palladium () is a Grade II* West End theatre located on Argyll Street, London, in the famous area of Soho. The theatre holds 2,286 seats. Of the roster of stars who have played there, many have televised performances. Between 1955 an ...

souvenir brochure from a 1970 production of ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part of ...

'', he was trained at the

Royal Academy of Dramatic Art The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA; ) is a drama school in London, England, that provides vocational conservatoire training for theatre, film, television, and radio. It is based in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, close to the Sen ...

. During the war he was commissioned in the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

. After the war he maintained the family interest in books and became a director of the firm of booksellers Pickering and Chatto. Chatto appeared mostly in films, including ''

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

'' (1960) in which he played the Clerk of Arraigns. He was well known for his role in the 1969

Guy Hamilton Mervyn Ian Guy Hamilton, DSC (16 September 1922 – 20 April 2016) was an English film director. He directed 22 films from the 1950s to the 1980s, including four James Bond films. Early life Hamilton was born in Paris on 16 September 1922, wh ...

film ''

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

''. His work in the theatre includes ''

Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be ''Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'be'' is a 1960 West End musical comedy about Cockney low-life characters in the 1950s, including spivs, prostitutes, teddy-boys and corrupt policemen. The work is more of a play with music than a conventional mus ...

'', ''

My Fair Lady ''My Fair Lady'' is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw's 1913 play ''Pygmalion'', with a book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons f ...

'', ''Number 10'', ''

The Young Visiters ''The Young Visiters'' or ''Mister Salteena's Plan'' is a 1919 novel by English writer Daisy Ashford (1881–1972). She wrote it when she was nine years old and part of its appeal lies in its juvenile innocence, and its unconventional grammar an ...

'' and ''Hushabye''. In 1969 he appeared with

Tommy Steele Sir Thomas Hicks (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star. After being discovered at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London, Steele reco ...

and

Mary Hopkin Mary Hopkin (born 3 May 1950), credited on some recordings as Mary Visconti from her marriage to Tony Visconti, is a Welsh singer-songwriter best known for her 1968 UK number 1 single "Those Were the Days". She was one of the first artists ...

in ''

Dick Whittington Richard Whittington (c. 1354–1423) of the parish of St Michael Paternoster Royal, City of London, was an English merchant and a politician of the late medieval period. He is also the real-life inspiration for the English folk tale ''Dick ...

'' at The

and in 1970 was The Emperor of China in ''

'' with

Cilla Black Priscilla Maria Veronica White (27 May 1943 – 1 August 2015), better known as Cilla Black, was an English singer, actress and television presenter. Championed by her friends the Beatles, Black began her career as a singer in 1963. Her ...

Alfred Marks Alfred Edward Marks OBE (born Alfred Edward Touchinsky; 28 January 19211 July 1996) was a British actor and comedian. In his 60-year career, he played dramatic and comedy roles in numerous television programmes, stage shows and films. His self- ...

and

Leslie Crowther Leslie Douglas Sargent Crowther, CBE (6 February 1933 – 29 September 1996) was an English comedian, actor, TV presenter, and game show host. Biography Crowther was born on Monday, 6 February, 1933 in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, son of ...

, and with

Alec Guinness Sir Alec Guinness (born Alec Guinness de Cuffe; 2 April 1914 – 5 August 2000) was an English actor. After an early career on the stage, Guinness was featured in several of the Ealing comedies, including ''Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (194 ...

in the play '' Time out of Mind''. He appeared on TV in ''Honey Lane'', ''

The Cedar Tree ''The Cedar Tree'' was a television serial that ran from 1976 to 1979 on ITV in the United Kingdom. It involved the story of the upper class Bourne family before the turn of the Second World War. The main setting is Larkfield Manor, the family ...

'', '' The Expert'', and ''Happy Ever After''. He had a minor role in the pilot episode of ''

Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' is a British private detective television series, starring Mike Pratt and Kenneth Cope respectively as the private detectives Jeff Randall and Marty Hopkirk. The series was created by Dennis Spooner and pro ...

'' in 1969 in the episode, "

My Late Lamented Friend and Partner "My Late Lamented Friend and Partner" is the pilot episode of the 1969 British television series ''Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)'' starring Mike Pratt, Kenneth Cope and Annette Andre. The episode was first broadcast on 21 September 1969 on IT ...

Marriage

Chatto married Rosalind Joan Thompson, who became a successful talent agent under the name ''Ros Chatto'' (died 5 June 2012); the couple had two sons: *James Chatto whose child is the stand-up comedian

Mae Martin Mae Martin (born 2 May 1987) is a Canadian-born comedian, actor, and screenwriter based in England. They wrote and starred in the Netflix comedy series ''Feel Good'' and won two Canadian Comedy Awards as part of the comedy troupe The Young and ...

. *

Daniel Chatto Daniel St George Chatto (born Daniel Chatto St George Sproule; 22 April 1957) is a British artist and former actor. He is the husband of Lady Sarah Chatto, the daughter of Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, niece of Queen Elizabeth II and c ...

who married Lady

Sarah Armstrong-Jones Lady Sarah Frances Elizabeth Chatto (née Armstrong-Jones; born 1 May 1964) is the only daughter of Princess Margaret and Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon. She and her brother, David Armstrong-Jones, 2nd Earl of Snowdon, are the on ...

, the daughter of

Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon, (Margaret Rose; 21 August 1930 – 9 February 2002) was the younger daughter of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and the younger sister and only sibling of Queen Elizabeth ...

and

Anthony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon Antony Charles Robert Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon, (7 March 1930 – 13 January 2017), was a British photographer and filmmaker. He is best known for his portraits of world notables, many of them published in ''Vogue'', '' Vanity Fa ...

, and the niece of Queen

Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

Filmography

References

External links

* 1920 births 1982 deaths English male film actors Tom Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art 20th-century English male actors People from Elstree Indian Army personnel of World War II British Indian Army officers {{UK-film-actor-stub