Charles Gray

 Charles Gray, born Donald Marshall Gray (August 28, 1928 – March 7, 2000)

Gray was well known for roles including Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, Dikko Henderson in a previous Bond film You Only Live Twice, Mycroft Holmes in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and as the Criminologist in The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Gray attended Bournemouth School alongside Benny Hill, whose school had been evacuated to the same buildings, during the Second World War. Some of his friends remember that his bedroom walls were plastered with pictures of film stars. On becoming a professional actor he had to change his name, as there was already an actor named Donald Gray. His breakthrough year was 1967, when he starred with Peter O'Toole and Omar Sharif in the Second World War murder-mystery film The Night of the Generals. Gray's most prolific work as an actor was between 1968 and 1979, when he appeared in more than forty major film and television productions. From this period, he is perhaps best known for portraying the Criminologist (the narrator) in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and a similar character, Judge Oliver Wright, in its sequel Shock Treatment (1981). Other television appearances included roles in Dennis Potter's Blackeyes, The New Statesman, Thriller, Upstairs, Downstairs, Bergerac, Porterhouse Blue plus a range of Shakespearean roles, such as Caesar in Julius Caesar and Pandarus in Troilus and Cressida. Gray died on March 7, 2000 at the age of 71. He never married.