David Healy
A rotund, jovial New Yorker, David Healy obligingly played every manner of stereotypical American in British films and on television for more than thirty years. The son of an Australian father and an American mother, he spent much of his youth in Texas. Studying at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, he majored in drama and befriended another young acting hopeful, named Larry Hagman. David first arrived in England as a member of the U.S. Air Force and soon wound up, along with Hagman, in the cast of a touring show written by John Briley. This later grew into The Airbase (1965), a 25-minute BBC sitcom (with David as Staff Sergeant Tillman Miller), which took a humorous look at British-American cultural differences at an RAF base.
Considering his job prospects to be rather more lucrative in Britain -- in keeping with the 'bigger fish, smaller pond' theory - David soon found himself in almost continuous demand for any part which required an affable or imperious American. His long gallery of characters included diplomats, businessmen, bureaucrats, spooks, military brass, and so on. There were rare occasions, when he acted against type and played 'Britishers' -- a notable point in case being a likeable Dr. Watson, opposite charismatic Ian Richardson as Sherlock Holmes, in The Sign of Four (1983). His comedic side was showcased in guest appearances with Dick Emery and Kenny Everett and a with couple of turns in Jeeves and Wooster (1990).
Though married and settled in Surrey, David took job offers on both sides of the Atlantic. He was glimpsed as a cleric in Patton (1970) and in Robert Aldrich's doomsday thriller Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977); well-cast as Teddy Roosevelt in Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years (1977); and he had recurring roles in TV's favourite soapie of the day, Dallas (1978). British TV audiences saw him guesting in just about every major crime series, from The Saint (1962) and Department S (1969), to The Persuaders! (1971). Simultaneously, from 1967, David pursued a successful career as a stage actor in classical plays with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. In 1975, he re-visited his roots, playing Falstaff at a Shakespeare festival in Dallas. Ever versatile, David found another calling in musicals, appearing in "Kismet", "Call Me Madam" and "The Music Man". He received much praise for his interpretation of Runyonesque gambler Nicely-Nicely Johnson (played definitively on screen by Stubby Kaye) in "Guys and Dolls", performing show-stopping encores of "Sit Down, You're Rockin' the Boat".
- IMDb Mini Biography By: I.S.Mowis
Known For | Acting |
---|---|
Most Rating | 1.205 |
Birthday | 1929-05-15 |
Place of Birth | Manhattan, New York, USA |
Also Known As | David Healey, Dave Healey, |
1968
Only When I Larf
6.4/4
A master conman leads a pair of British accomplices on an international adventure of highly profitable dirty tricks.
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Only When I Larf
1970
Patton
7.506/1076
"Patton" tells the tale of General George S. Patton, famous tank commander of World War II. The film begins with Patton's career in North Africa and p...
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Patton
1986
The Ted Kennedy Jr. Story
0/0
A profile in courage, the film examines the trauma and effort that Senator Edward Kennedy's son went through after losing his leg to a rare form of ca...
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The Ted Kennedy Jr. Story
1972
Madame Sin
6.8/8
A CIA agent is used as a pawn in an insane woman's plan to steal a Polaris submarine.
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Madame Sin
1972
Ooh... You Are Awful
4.8/16
Charlie Tully and womanising Reggie Peek con two rich Italians out of £500,000 but during their flight out Charlie is arrested for coning an American...
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Ooh... You Are Awful
1971
Diamonds Are Forever
6.4/2066
Diamonds are stolen only to be sold again in the international market. James Bond infiltrates a smuggling mission to find out who's guilty. The missio...
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Diamonds Are Forever
2008
Merlin and the War of the Dragons
3.8/39
In 5th Century Britian, a young Merlin struggles for his place in his known land under the tutelage of The Mage, a local wizard whom sees the young ma...
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Merlin and the War of the Dragons
2000
Mullitt
5/1
Two roommates late on rent have to come up with a quick way to get money.
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Mullitt
1980
The Ninth Configuration
6.518/141
Army psychiatrist Colonel Kane is posted to a secluded gothic castle housing a military asylum. With a reserved calm, he indulges the inmates' delusio...
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The Ninth Configuration
1976
Panache
0/0
A stylish comedy swashbuckler mixing romance, masterful swordplay, political treachery, and 20th-Century pratfalls in 17th-Century France, this film w...
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Panache
1987
Three Wishes for Jamie
6/1
Adapted from Charles O'Neal's 1949 book, this follows the lighthearted adventures of a late 19th Century young man named Jamie McGrew, the three wishe...
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Three Wishes for Jamie
1989
Bomber Harris
6.8/2
Biography of Arthur Harris (aka "Bomber Harris") of RAF Bomber Command, during WW2 - in particular his strategy of heavy bomber "Millenium Raids" on G...
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Bomber Harris
1983
The Sign of Four
6.8/15
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson try to track down the Great Mogul, the second-largest diamond in the world.
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The Sign of Four
1971
Lust for a Vampire
5.9/69
In 1830, the Karnstein heirs use the blood of an innocent to bring forth the evil that is the beautiful Mircalla - or as she was in 1710, Carmilla. Th...
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Lust for a Vampire
1977
Twilight's Last Gleaming
6.4/61
A renegade USAF general, Lawrence Dell, escapes from a military prison and takes over an ICBM silo near Montana and threatens to provoke World War 3 u...
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Twilight's Last Gleaming
2000
It Had to Be You
6.2/25
Sparks fly when Anna Penn and Charlie Hudson meet. Unfortunately, they're both engaged to other people. In fact, they're staying at the same New York...
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It Had to Be You
1968
Assignment K
6/7
Philip Scott, the boss of a toy company, is secretly also the chief of a British spy organization. Scott's cover is destroyed when enemy agents kidnap...
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Assignment K
1985
Lace 2
0/0
While in the first part, Lili searched for her mother, she now questions her mom on the identity of her father.
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Lace 2
1987
Turnaround
0/0
Magicians grandson and his girlfriend and their friends are victimized by a bike gang of her former boyfriend. Using grandfather's house and props fro...
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Turnaround
1973
The Eagle Has Landed
0/0
A mission takes off for the moon. But this is a space probe with a difference. Its purpose is to stage the first-ever live variety show from the lunar...
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The Eagle Has Landed
1964
The Finest Hours
6.3/3
A biography of Winston Churchill, shown through re-creations and actual film footage and told by Orson Welles.
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The Finest Hours
1984
In Possession
8/1
A terrified couple becomes trapped in what seems to be a replay of a sinister event that happened in their apartment in the past.
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In Possession
1977
Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years
5.1/5
The story of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt during their 12-year stay at the White House.
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Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years
1972
Embassy
5/1
A KGB assassin infiltrates the American embassy in Beirut in an attempt to eliminate a Russian defector being protected by the CIA.
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Embassy
1964
Kiss Me, Kate
0/0
A pair of divorced actors are brought together to participate in a musical version of The Taming of the Shrew. Of course, the couple seem to act a gre...
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Kiss Me, Kate
1967
The Double Man
6.2/18
In a complex piece of espionage the Russian secret service attempts to kidnap a high ranking officer in the CIA and replace him with a double of its o...
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The Double Man
1984
Supergirl
5.4/578
After losing a powerful orb, Kara, Superman's cousin, comes to Earth to retrieve it and instead finds herself up against a wicked witch.
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Supergirl
1986
Labyrinth
7.276/2389
When teen Sarah is forced to babysit her half-brother Toby, she summons Jareth the Goblin King to take him away. When he is actually kidnapped, Sarah...
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Labyrinth
1972
Endless Night
6/51
Shiftless dreamer Michael Rogers fantasizes about a lifestyle above his means and marries a wealthy, young girl who just came of age. They hire a famo...
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Endless Night
1978
Winterspelt 1944
0/0
In the Second World War, spring 1944: shortly before the planned Ardennes offensive, Germans and Americans stand waiting on the German-Belgian border....
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Winterspelt 1944
1974
Phase IV
6.3/240
Arizona ants mock the food chain on their way to a desert lab to get two scientists and a woman.
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Phase IV
1965
Be My Guest
6.3/3
A couple inherit a hotel with no guests until their son's pop group turns things around.
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Be My Guest
1986
Double Image
5.7/6
This film tells the true-life story of Yuri Nosenko, a top Soviet KGB agent who defected to the West at the height of the Cold War in 1962.
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Double Image
1968
Isadora
6/29
A biography of the dancer Isadora Duncan, the 1920s dancer who forever changed people's ideas of ballet. Her nude, semi-nude, and pro-Soviet dance pro...
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Isadora
1977
Scott Joplin
6/6
The life story of Scott Joplin and how he became the greatest ragtime composer of all time.
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