WARNING: This Article May Contain Spoilers

Born: 9th October 1900

Died: 19th August 1976 (aged 75)

As you will know my main modus operandi for these things is to look at an actors top five worldwide box office films and then talk about my favourite film of theirs. Unfortunately, as I have found out, that’s not always possible, I don’t know if the actor isn’t an international success or what but in such cases I will try to find a film from each decade of their acting career.

Edinburgh born Alistair George Bell Sim started his acting career quite late in life in comparison to most actors, he was thirty before he started his theatrical career. Prior to that he worked in the retail business before being called up to serve in the First World War, and it was after this that he turned to acting at the age of 18. Obviously there were many years before he made it – years in which he became an elocution teacher, alongside which he ran his own drama school for local children. His breakthrough was as an understudy to all three lead men in Othello at the Savoy Theatre as well as a small role of a messenger. After that he made his Broadway debut which led on to a sixteen month engagement with the Old Vic. His first film was The Riverside Murder in which he played a policeman. He was 46 before he got his first starring role, as a member of the force again but an Inspector this time, in Green for Danger.

Mysterious Mr Davis (1939)

I got very confused with this plot and Alastair Sim’s role within it. Aptly named in the opening cast list as ‘The Lunatic’ I am not sure the purpose of his character, yes he is a mad character which he plays quite accurately, but the whole plot is confusing. At first I thought it would go one way but it went another. Sim’s big eyes and wild hair suits the role and he plays him just like he does most of his other characters walking that fine line between lunacy and comedy.

Green for Danger (1949)

This is a gentle murder mystery with Sim playing Inspector Cockrill and it was nice to see a slightly more serious side to his nature. The Inspector refers to himself as being a “child in these matters” and being “idiotically pleased” with himself and Sim does play the role with a little boyishness. He is cocky yet aware of his responsibilities. His voice narrates the film from the start and there is something about his voice – that meticulous delivery – that adds a sense of suspense. 

Belles of St. Trinian’s/Blue Murder at St. Trinian’s (1954/1957)

It would be remiss of me to talk about Alastair Sim and not mention either of the two St. Trinian’s film he starred in in the 50s. In Belles he plays both the Headmistress of St. Trinian’s, Millicent Fritton, and her twin brother Clarence, a Bookmaker, and in Blue Murder he, as the opening sequence says, returns briefly as Miss Amelia Fritton – I’m not sure why the change of name but that’s what it says – and they are right with ‘returns briefly’ maybe on screen for a minute or two. Playing the Fritton siblings is a testament to his acting ability; I’m not sure how many roles of the era required men to dress as women but Alastair does it very well and separates the two different characters with mannerisms, tones and obviously voice. I admire any man* that can dress in women’s clothing, look passable as a woman and cope with the chaos that the St. Trinian’s girls throw at them!

*I cannot comment on Rupert Everett’s portrayal in the 2007 & 2009 St Trinian’s reboots as I have not seen either of them nor do I wish too. Any film that was promoted using someone who only has a cameo appearance (Girls Aloud) isn’t the film for me.

School for Scoundrels (1960)

Sim’s Mr S Potter, in School for Scoundrels is appropriately strange, he is after all the founder and Principal of the School of Lifemanship a school where men go to learn how to be “one up on your opponents at all times”. Potter is definitely not in Andrew Tate territory, although you can draw a few comparisons with the way women should be treated (or maybe that’s modern eyes looking back on a time when a women was supposed to be passive and meek), but there is something creepy about the way he loiters watching his student and is appalled when his number one turns against the ‘rules’

The Ruling Class (1972)

Do you ever think that there is a role that an actor has been working towards all there life? Well for Mr Sim I think all his bumbling, kooky roles were preparation for the role of Bishop Lampton in The Ruling Class. He is a nervous perplexed character from the outset but the wedding scene when he has to perform the ceremony with his nephew still claiming that he is God every time He is mentioned makes him even more jumpy. I think it is testament to Sim’s acting ability that he can play these roles without overplaying them.

I have to ask – what makes Christmas, Christmas? And for me Christmas isn’t Christmas without an adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and for me there is only really one portrayal of Scrooge that is acceptable and that is Alistair Sim’s 1951 film. The other year they showed about five different versions but not Sim’s; now don’t get me wrong the others, that I’ve seen, aren’t bad – I like Albert Finney’s 1970 musical, mainly because of the music, and I will tolerate Michael Caine in A Muppet’s Christmas Carol because it’s the Muppets – but none of them come close to Alistair. He looks small which helps with the Dickensian look and the miserly side of Scrooge, his wild white hair helps especially after he has been ‘visited’ and his large eyes show every emotion form fear to elation, pity to sadness. If this is scheduled to be on Christmas day you will find me on the sofa with a blanket and a drink and I will not be moving until the final credits role!

It is with no surprise, with his history of elocution, that Alistair Sim’s theatrical career was littered with Shakespearean and other classical roles, both comedy and tragedy. His last stage performance was a year before he died. As for his personal life, at the age of 32 he married, Naomi Merlith Plaskitt, six years after first meeting her at the age of 12 whilst she was a pupil at his drama school; Naomi was an actress and writer but gave up her acting to be with Sim.  They had one daughter, Merlith, but they encouraged young acting talent so ‘adopted’ several young protégés into their home, a woodland retreat in Henley-on-Thames, and helped them with their acting education and careers. One of these protégés was George Cole (of Minder fame). At the age of 15 George, and his mother (his father had passed away), were invited to stay with the Sim’s. He lived with them until he was about 27 when he married and bought a house nearby, he starred in several films with his mentor including the St Trinians series, and stayed close to the family for a very long time even after Alistair’s death. Sim died of lung cancer at the age of 75 in 1976, his wife wrote a memoir of their relationship together eleven years later.