George Layton
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George Layton (born March 2, 1943 at Bradford, Yorkshire, England) is an English actor, director, screenwriter and author, who studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
He is probably best known for the role of Paul Collier in the television comedy series Doctor in the House and its first two sequels Doctor At Large and Doctor In Charge.
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[edit] Television
His early television work includes Swizzlewick, Enter Solly Gold, United!, Thirty-Minute Theatre, Detective, What's In It For Me? and Lay Down Your Arms. He also made guest appearances in many classic British series, including The Likely Lads, Z Cars, The Liver Birds, The Sweeney, and in 1969 he had a small role in the Doctor Who story The Space Pirates. Layton also played the lead in Len and the River Mob for the BBC in 1968.
Later that year he made his debut as boisterous medical student Paul Collier in Doctor in the House. As well as continuing to star in the series, in 1971 he began to co-write episodes with former co-star Jonathan Lynn, the first under the pseudonym Oliver Fry to conceal the new writer's identity from his fellow cast members.
At the end of the Doctor In Charge series in 1973, he left the show (although he stayed on as a writer), and the following year he appeared in the first of two series of It Ain't Half Hot Mum as Bombardier 'Solly' Solomons. He then joined forces with Jonathan Lynn once again to co-write and co-star in another sitcom My Brother's Keeper.
His other television writing credits with Jonathan Lynn include episodes of On The Buses, Nearest and Dearest, Romany Jones and My Name Is Harry Worth.
In the mid-1970s, he and Lynn began to write separately, and Layton became a regular writer of Robin's Nest, in which he also played a guest character. Following this, he created and wrote every episode of the very popular sitcoms Don't Wait Up starring Nigel Havers and Tony Britton and Executive Stress with Geoffrey Palmer and Penelope Keith. In 1990, Don't Wait Up won the Television and Radio Industries Club's ‘Best Comedy Series’ award.
Throughout the 1980s, as well as playing a recurring character in the hit comedy-drama Minder, he provided voices for the children's cartoons Pigeon Street and Joshua Jones, and was the voice behind Sydney, a character in a tremendously popular and long-running advertising campaign for Tetley tea.
After a brief return to the role of Paul Collier in 1991's Doctor At The Top, he starred in the hit comedy-drama series Sunburn (1999-2000), playing Alan Brooks, area manager of Janus Holidays in Cyprus. His most recent acting appearances have been in Doctors and Holby City. In 2006 he made five appearances in Dictionary Corner on the game show Countdown and made a guest appearance in an episode of Heartbeat
On 18 January 1999, George Layton was the subject of This is Your Life.
[edit] Filmography
Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush (1967)
Mosquito Squadron (1969)
Carry On Behind (1975)
Confessions Of A Driving Instructor (1975)
Stand Up Virgin Soldiers (1977)
Don't Go Breaking My Heart (1999)
[edit] Selected Theatre
As actor:
Billy Liar as Geoffrey Fisher (The King's Head, Islington)
The Caucasian Chalk Circle as Lavrenti (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry)
Chicago as Amos Hart (Adelphi Theatre, London)
Chips With Everything as First Corporal (Royal Court and Broadway)
How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying as Ponty (New Theatre, Bromley)
More Lies About Jerzy as Jerzy Lesnewski (New End Theatre, Hampstead)
The Odd Couple as Felix (Theatre Royal, Windsor)
Oliver! as Fagin (London Palladium)
Twelfth Night as Feste (Belgrade Theatre, Coventry)
As director:
Barefoot in the Park (Cambridge Theatre Company)
Dangerous Corner (Cambridge Theatre Company)
Aladdin (Theatre Royal, Bath)
Dick Whittington Shaw Theatre)
[edit] Author
George Layton has written two books of fictional short stories, entitled "The Fib and Other Stories" and "The Swap and Other Stories". The tales describe family life in the North of England in the post-WWII era. The books have been part of the National Curriculum in British schools, and a third title and a film version are in the works.
