Associated with gritty, flashy film villainy, veteran character actor Torin Thatcher was born in Bombay, India to British parents on January 15, 1905, and was educated in England at the Bedford School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. A former schoolteacher, he appeared on the London stage in 1927 before entering British films in 1934. During World War II he served with the Royal Artillery and achieved the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was an extremely imposing, powerfully built specimen and it offered him a number of tough, commanding, often sinister roles over the years primarily in larger-than-life action sequences. He made a number of classic British films in the late 1930s and 1940s including Sabotage (1936), 巴巴拉上校 (1941), 被俘获的心 (1946), 远大前程 (1946), in which he played Bentley ("The Spider") Drummle, and 堕落的偶像 (1948). In Hollywood from the 1950s on, his looming figure and baleful countenance were constantly in demand, gnashing his teeth in a slew of popular costumers such as 红海盗 (1952), Blackbeard, the Pirate (1952) as reformed pirate Sir Henry Morgan, 圣袍千秋 (1953), 木马屠城记 (1956) as Ulysses, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958) as the evil, shaven-domed magician Sokurah who shrinks the princess to miniature size, 控方证人 (1957) as the prosecuting attorney, 历劫佳人 (1959) as the Duke of Wellington, the 马龙·白兰度/'Trevor Howard' remake of 叛舰喋血记 (1962), and 夏威夷 (1966). Thatcher returned to the stage quite frequently, notably on Broadway, in such esteemed productions as "Edward, My Son" (1948), "That Lady" (1949) and "Billy Budd" (1951). In 1959 he portrayed Captain Keller in the award-winning play "The Miracle Worker" with Anne Bancroft and 帕蒂·杜克. Also a steady fixture on TV, he appeared in such made-for-TV films as the Jack Palance version of "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" and "Brenda Starr." Thatcher died of cancer on March 4, 1981, in the near-by Los Angeles area.
The favorite villain of director 纳森·朱兰.
A co-founder of the Society for Theatre Research in 1947 and was its Vice Chairman for the Committee.
Received the 1957 Sylvania Award for his performance in "Beyond This Place.".
Appeared in one episode each of the four 1960's Irwin Allen science fiction TV series. Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea: The Secret of the Loch (1965) 5 April 1965, Lost in Space: The Space Trader (1966) 9 March 1966, The Time Tunnel: Crack of Doom (1966) 14 October 1966, and Land of the Giants: Nightmare (1970) 4 January 1970.
In addition, also appeared in one episode of 1960's science fiction TV series, Star Trek: The Original Series: The Return of the Archons (1967) 9 February 1967.
Deep, booming voice with a boisterous laugh
