| Patrick Waddington | |
| Birth Date: | 19 August 1901 |
| Birth Place: | York, England |
| Death Place: | York, England |
Patrick William Simpson Waddington (19 August 19014 February 1987) was an English actor, educated at Gresham's School at Holt in Norfolk.[1] He was born and died in York, England.[2]
Waddington was the grandson of William Waddington, the piano manufacturer who also took over the management of the Theatre Royal York.[3] After Gresham's School and St John's College, Oxford,[4] he started his career singing, and in the 1930s was in That Certain Trio with Peggy Cochrane.[5] [6] On stage from 1924, often in upper-class roles, his theatre work included the original West End run of Patrick Hamilton's Rope in 1929; a lengthy tour of My Fair Lady, as Colonel Pickering, in 1963–1965; and the musical Kean on Broadway, in 1961.[7] [5] [8] [9] [10] Film and TV included The Wooden Horse (1950), A Night to Remember (1958), and two episodes of Dad's Army, as 'The Brigadier'.[11]
In 1951 he became General Secretary of TACT (The Actors Charitable Trust) and was headmaster of its children's home, Silverlands, until 1953.[12] [5] A plaque to commemorate him can be seen in the Courtyard entrance to the Merchant Adventurers' Hall in York. He was a member of the Company of Merchant Adventurers of the City of York from 1933 to his death in 1987.[3] In 1986, he self-published his autobiography, Patrick: Or, That Awful Warning.[3]