Edward Chapman Trailers
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Edward Chapman (13 October 1901 - 9 August 1977) was an English actor who starred in many films and television programmes, but is chiefly remembered as "Mr. Wilfred Grimsdale", the officious superior and comic foil to Norman Wisdom's character of Pitkin in many of his films from the late 1950s and 1960s.
Chapman was born in Harrogate, Yorkshire, England. On leaving school he became a bank clerk but later began his stage career with Ben Greet's Company in June 1924 at the Repertory Theatre, Nottingham, playing Gecko in George du Maurier's Trilby. He made his first London stage appearance at the Court Theatre in August 1925 playing the Rev Septimus Tudor in The Farmer's Wife. Among dozens of stage roles that followed, he played Bonaparte to Margaret Rawlings's Josephine in Napoleon at the Embassy Theatre in September 1934. In 1928 he attracted the attention of Alfred Hitchcock, who gave him the role of "The Paycock" in the 1930 film, Juno and the Paycock. In the same year he also made an appearance in Caste (of which no prints are known to exist). He had a role in The Citadel in 1938 and appeared alongside George Formby in the Ealing Studios comedy Turned Out Nice Again in 1941.
During the Second World War he took a break from acting and joined the Royal Air Force. After training he was posted to 129 (Mysore) Squadron as an intelligence officer. This Spitfire squadron was based at Westhampnett and Debden. The squadron was heavily engaged in combat during this period and many of Chapman's fellow squadron mates were killed in action.
Chapman first starred alongside Wisdom in 1957's Just My Luck in the role of Mr. Stoneway, but the next year in The Square Peg he appeared as Mr. Grimsdale for the first time opposite Wisdom's character of Norman Pitkin. In 1960 he and Wisdom acted together again in The Bulldog Breed, playing the roles of Mr. Philpots and Norman Puckle - Mr. Grimsdale and Pitkin in all but name. Wisdom appeared alone as Norman Pitkin in On the Beat in 1962, while Chapman branched out, starring in the Danish folktale Venus fra Vestø, but Grimsdale and Pitkin were reunited for 1963's A Stitch in Time. Their final performance together was in The Early Bird in 1965, Wisdom's first film in colour. In all, he appeared alongside Norman Wisdom in five films.
After Sir John Gielgud was arrested for "persistently importuning male persons for immoral purposes", Chapman started a petition to force him to resign from Equity. Sir Laurence Olivier reportedly threw Chapman out of his dressing room when he solicited his signature for the petition.
From 1965 Chapman played mostly characters roles on television. His final role was as Mr. Callon for nine episodes of the BBC's seafaring melodrama The Onedin Line between 1971 and 1972. Chapman died of a heart attack in Brighton, East Sussex, England at the age of 75.
Most Popular Edward Chapman Trailers
Total trailers found: 77
17 May 1941
Third and final film in the 'Inspector Hornleigh’ series of comedy-thrillers. Inspector Hornleigh (Gordon Harker), disappointed at not being handed an important spy case, is assigned by Scotland Yard to an army barracks to investigate the mundane thefts of supplies from the stores.
21 June 1964
A professor of astronomy helping on a missile development program. An old friend of his is a Russian chess champion.
18 October 1953
When Ex Colonel Merton discovers a burglar ransacking his home, he is shocked to find out that the thief is a former soldier from his tank regiment.
05 June 1938
Who Killed John Savage?
01 March 1940
Commissioned by the Ministry of Information and specifically target working class audiences; ‘Now you’re talking’ follows a plant worker, who lets slip vital information about some overnight research on a captured enemy aircraft.
10 November 1953
A group of men from a London pub are going on a darts team outing to Boulogne. Various members of the party have different reasons for going and get involved in various adventures.
24 March 1960
Hapless Henry Palfrey is patronised by his self-important chief clerk at work, ignored by restaurant waiters, conned by shady second-hand car salesmen, and, worst of all, endlessly wrong-footed by unspeakably rotten cad Raymond Delauney who has set his cap at April, new love of Palfrey's life.
28 September 1940
A tale of life on board a Royal Navy cruiser assigned to protect the vital convoys between America and England during WWII.
29 April 1931
A young woman falls in love with an aristocrat and tries to convince his parents that she is herself wealthy.
25 March 1958
A neglected girl in post-World War II London befriends street urchins who help her build a tiny garden in a bombed-out church.
06 July 1940
On the eve of WWII a young defence lawyer, assisted by his wife, invaigles his way into a gang of foreign saboteurs.
27 September 1948
A handsome young master at a boys school incurs the jealousy of an embittered colleague. From the novel by Hugh Walpole.
13 December 1960
Norman Puckle, a well-meaning but clumsy grocer's assistant, can't seem to do anything right. After being rejected by Marlene, the love of his life, he attempts suicide, but can't even do that.
29 July 1952
London, the early 1950s. Born deaf, Mandy is mute for most of her childhood. As she reaches school age her family itself is in danger of breaking up.
04 December 1952
A newly-arrived army chaplain is put in charge of camp entertainment and has the idea of putting on a Brains Trust with local notables.
07 September 1940
During the Second World War, a special constable and former solicitor is called upon to defend his sr
29 June 1942
The story of flyer Amy Johnson the girl from Yorkshire who won the hearts of the British public in the 1930s with her record-breaking solo flights around the world.
31 March 1936
The story of a century: a decades-long second World War leaves plague and anarchy, then a rational state rebuilds civilization and attempts space travel.
17 September 1970
Executive Harold Pelham suffers a serious accident after which he faces the shadow of death. When, against all odds, he miraculously recovers, he discovers that his life does not belong to him anymore.
04 December 1958
Norman Pitkin and Mr Grimsdale are council workmen mending the road outside an Army base when they come into conflict with the military.
21 February 1941
Tommy Trinder promotes the virtues of the wartime communal British Restaurants.
12 January 1935
The Cinderella story is reversed in this light-hearted adaptation, with Cinders a young man who eventually wins the 'princess' – in this case, an oil millionaire's daughter!
01 January 1954
Having been given enforced retirement due to his age, Mick-Mack creates strain upon his extended family.
01 January 1965
While posters urge austerity and vigilance in wartime Britain, 'Joey Boy' Thompson has never had it better.
20 May 1949
An Army deserter, still a fugitive in Post-War Britain, wanders into a pawn-shop robbery and finds himself wanted for murder.
10 December 1934
When a meek secretary goes to work for her new boss, she becomes a sophisticated lady.
25 February 1952
A charming and ambitious young man finds many ways to raise himself through the ranks in business and social standing - some honest, some not quite so.
08 February 1949
Quiet and somewhat direction-less, Alfred Polly uses the money he inherits from his father to marry and to set up shop in a small town.
01 March 1939
An overheard conversation leads to clues that a kidnapping plot is afoot.
29 May 1960
England, 1891. Ascending writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) meets Lord Alfred Douglas, a young nobleman. Over the years, they will maintain an intimate relationship that will be openly criticized by Alfred's father, the Marquis of Queensberry, in such a harsh way that Wilde, instigated by Alfred, decides to sue Queensberry in 1895, accusing him of defamation.
14 November 1957
Norman works in a jewellers workshop and fantasises (in the nicest way) about meeting the window dresser across the road from his workshop.
01 December 1939
During a holiday by the British seaside, Hornleigh and Bingham grow bored and turn their hand to investigating a local crime.
01 January 1955
An American airman inherits an Earldom in England along with the small matter of $3 million on the proviso that he gives up his US citizenship.
30 November 1965
Norman Pitkin is the assistant helping to run a small, old fashioned dairy which is threatened by a larger, modern organisation.
06 November 1936
A character study depicting the life of Rembrandt Van Rijn at the height of his fame in the mid 1600s.
20 July 1932
The officers of the Flying Squad attempt to track down a drug-smuggling gang.
29 October 1934
The Duke of Bridgewater sends for the heir he's never seen. His heir is Patricia, and the Duke is a woman-hater, so Patricia disguises herself as a boy.
03 March 1961
Unscrupulous business Sir Pierson Cale is determined to win the contract to build a power station. He sees John Hamilton as someone who can get the job done but he wants him to bid half a million less than his nearest competitor.
15 June 1950
Londoner Harry Fabian is a second-rate con man looking for an angle. After years of putting up with Harry's schemes, his girlfriend, Mary, becomes fed up when he taps her for yet another loan.
10 November 1941
Before the war, a Fleet Air Arm pilot is dismissed for causing the death of a colleague. Working for a small Greek airline when the Germans invade Greece, he gets a chance to redeem himself and rejoin his old unit on a British carrier.
21 September 1956
Army radiation experiments awaken a subterranean monster from a fissure that feeds on energy and proceeds to terrorise a remote Scottish village.
01 October 1954
One day in the lives and loves of the staff in a large department store.
31 July 1930
When actress Diana Baring is found in a daze beside her colleague’s murdered body, all evidence points to her guilt.
01 December 1949
"The Spider and the Fly is set in Paris during the cloud-cuckoo days before WW I. The storyline intertwines the destinies of three people.
23 July 1936
An ordinary man, while vigorously asserting the impossibility of miracles, suddenly discovers that he can perform them.
29 October 1938
Young, idealistic, newly qualified Scottish doctor Andrew Manson arrives in Wales and takes his first job in a mining town, and begins to wonder at the persistent cough many of the miners have.
01 May 1956
Anglo-Indian Victoria Jones seeks her true identity amid the chaos of the British withdrawal from India.
06 September 1941
Based on Aimee Stuart's play. Little Scots girl decides to use her inheritance for a "grand tour" of the Continent.
17 August 1956
For Capt. Robert John Evans, smuggling black-market goods is nothing out of the ordinary. But one day he's hired by Aristides Mavros for a more involved assignment -- sneaking an imprisoned American out of communist-controlled territory.
01 September 1930
The daughter of a Cockney drunkard marries a young aristocrat who is presumed killed in action in WWI.
26 March 1957
Losing out to Dr. Bingham (Michael Medwin) in a competition for house surgeon when he offends a member of the board, young Dr.
01 December 1963
An accident in the butchers shop leads Norman Pitkin and Mr Grimsdale to the hospital where, after causing the normal amount of chaos, Pitkin finds Lindy, a little girl who hasn't spoken or smiled since her parents were killed in an aeroplane accident.
22 January 1952
A trade union official becomes governor of a British island colony.
01 June 1939
The Four Men of the title are British WWI veterans who decide to work secretly against enemies of the country.
06 November 1950
Hazel Woods, a beautiful and young Welsh girl, lives a wild, rustic life and loves animals — in particular, her pet fox.
01 January 1952
Now old, ill, poor, and largely forgotten, William Freise-Greene was once young and handsome William Green.
29 June 1930
In the slums of Dublin during the Irish Civil War, the Boyle family’s fragile stability collapses after news of an unexpected inheritance lures them into a false sense of prosperity.
06 April 1940
In a Welsh coal mining valley, a young man with a beautiful singing voice is called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice when a pit disaster threatens.
21 December 1962
Vestø island's isolated community's prize cow is in danger of being abducted by German WWII occupation forces.
01 February 1955
After being arrested for assaulting a football referee, desperate train driver Bill (Arthur Askey) raids the railwaymen's holiday fund to cover his £55 fine.
