Alastair Sim

Alastair Sim CBE
Sim as the Laird in Geordie, 1955
Born	Alastair George Bell Sim (1900-10-09)9 October 1900 Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Died	19 August 1976(1976-08-19) (aged 75) London, England, United Kingdom
Cause of death	lung cancer
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1930–1976
Spouse(s)	Naomi Plaskitt (m. 1932–1976; his death)

Alastair George Bell Sim, CBE (9 October 1900 – 19 August 1976) was a Scottish character actor who began his theatrical career at the age of thirty, but quickly became established as a popular West End performer, remaining so until his death in 1976. He also appeared in more than fifty British films, starting in 1935.

After a series of false starts, including a spell as a jobbing labourer and another as a clerk in a local government office, Sim's love of and talent for poetry reading won him several prizes and led to his appointment as a lecturer in elocution at the University of Edinburgh in 1925. He also ran his own private elocution and drama school, from which, with the help of the playwright John Drinkwater, he made the transition to the professional stage in 1930.

Despite his late start, Sim soon became well known on the London stage. A period of more than a year as a member of the Old Vic company brought him wide experience of playing Shakespeare and other classics, to which he returned throughout his career. In the modern repertoire, he formed a close professional association with the author James Bridie, which lasted from 1939 until the dramatist's death in 1951. Sim not only acted in Bridie's works, but directed them.

In the later 1940s and for most of the 1950s, Sim was a leading star of British cinema, appearing in more than fifty films. They included Green for Danger (1946), Hue and Cry (1947), The Happiest Days of Your Life (1950), Scrooge (1951), The Belles of St Trinian's (1954) and An Inspector Calls (1954). Later, he made fewer films and generally concentrated on stage work, including successful productions at the Chichester Festival and regular appearances in new and old works in the West End.