Clive Dunn obit

British actor Clive Dunn was not on the list.

Clive Dunn and the art of playing older people

The late Clive Dunn specialized in playing much older characters than himself. It's an art perfected by a small group of actors. What are the secrets of appearing elderly on screen?

His doddering, bumbling L/Cpl Jones was the very epitome of comic decrepitude.

And occasionally, casual Dad's Army fans were surprised to learn that Clive Dunn, who has passed away at the age of 92, was considerably younger than his much-beloved character.

Though Jones was supposed to be in his 70s, Dunn was a mere stripling of 48 when the show began in 1968.

His bandy legs, rambling anecdotes, catchphrases - "Permission to speak!", "Don't panic!", "They don't like it up 'em!" - and general aura of agitated confusion were all intended to establish the butcher-cum-Home Guard NCO as a man in his twilight years.

It was an act he had perfected over decades. Even before Dad's Army brought him widespread fame, the music hall veteran had specialised in playing wizened figures much older than himself.

Nor did he seem eager to escape this typecasting after he found fame as Jones. When in 1971 he had a number one hit with Grandad, appearing on Top of the Pops in a rocking chair singing about how "my days are gone", he was barely 50.

But while Dunn occupied something of a niche, he was far from the only actor to make a living playing older characters.

Caroline Aherne created her Mrs Merton character while in her twenties. In the Kumars at Number 42, Meera Syal played the grandmother of her real-life husband Sajeev Bhaskar. Estelle Getty, best known as Sophia in the Golden Girls, was in fact a year younger than Bea Arthur, who was her screen daughter Dorothy.

David Jason - best known as Del Boy in Only Fools and Horses - was cast as elderly men from early in his career and was even considered for the part of L/Cpl Jones. It was a skill witnessed by television audiences when Jason played Blanco in the 1970s sitcom Porridge.

Films

Film

Year       Title       Role       Notes

1935      Boys Will Be Boys             Schoolboy watching rugby            Uncredited

1937      Good Morning, Boys       Minor role           Uncredited

1938      A Yank at Oxford              Minor role           Uncredited

1939      Goodbye, Mr. Chips        Youth    Uncredited

1949      The Hasty Heart                MacDougall        Uncredited

1949      Boys in Brown    Holdup Man       Uncredited

1957      Treasure Island Ben Gunn           

1959      The Treasure of San Teresa          Cemetery keeper            

1961      What a Whopper              Mr. Slate             

1962      She'll Have to Go              Chemist               

1962      The Fast Lady     Old Gentleman in Burning House              

1963      The Mouse on the Moon               Bandleader        

1965      You Must Be Joking!        Doorman            

1967      Just like a Woman            Graff von Fischer             

1967      The Mini-Affair Tyson   

1968      30 Is a Dangerous Age, Cynthia   Doctor

1968      The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom             Dr. Zimmerman                

1969      Crooks and Coronets      Basil      

1969      The Magic Christian         Sommelier         

1971      Dad's Army         L.Cpl. Jack Jones              

1980      The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu          Keeper of the Keys – London Tower        

Television roles

Year       Title       Role

1960–63               Bootsie and Snudge        Henry Johnson

1963      It's a Square World          various

1968–77               Dad's Army         Lance-Corporal Jack Jones

1970      Here Come the Double Deckers!                Hodge

1974–75               My Old Man       Sam Cobbett

1979–84               Grandad               Charlie Quick