Paul Daneman (29 October 1925 - 28 April 2001) was an English film, television, theatre and voice actor.
Paul Frederick Daneman was born in Islington, London. He attended the Haberdashers' Aske's School and Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow and studied stage design at Reading University where he joined the dramatic society. After training at RADA he joined Bristol Old Vic, Birmingham rep and the Old Vic for four years. He was the first actor to play Vladimir in Waiting For Godot at the Arts Theatre in Westminster[citation needed].

His film credits include: Zulu and Oh! What a Lovely War. Daneman's TV credits include: The Adventures of Robin Hood, Danger Man, Out of the Unknown, The Saint, Spy Trap, Blake's 7, The Professionals and Rumpole of the Bailey. The BBC's 1960 landmark production "An Age of Kings," a fifteen part drama that combined Shakespeare's histories of the Kings of England and presented them in chronological order, featured Daneman as Richard III.

Daneman played the husband of Wendy Craig in the original series of the popular BBC sitcom Not in Front of the Children before being replaced by Ronald Hines. He also played Bilbo Baggins in the 1968 BBC Radio dramatisation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.

While recovering from a heart attack, he wrote the sitcom Affairs of the Heart. In 1995 Daneman published If I Only Had Wings, a novel inspired by his experiences in the Royal Air Force during World War II.

Daneman died in 2001 and was buried at East Sheen Cemetery, South West London.

Paul Daneman, actor: born London 26 October 1925: married 1952 Susan Courtney (one adopted daughter; marriage dissolved), 1955 Meredith Kinmont (two daughters); died London 28 April 2001.


Paul Daneman, actor: born London 26 October 1925: married 1952 Susan Courtney (one adopted daughter; marriage dissolved), 1955 Meredith Kinmont (two daughters); died London 28 April 2001.

As a classical stage actor, Paul Daneman showed his mettle by starring as Henry VI, Richard III and Doctor Faustus with the Old Vic company before finding widespread fame on television as the husband caught in the crossfire in the sitcoms Not in Front of the Children and Never a Cross Word. Both were hugely popular and featured middle-class couples facing the trials and tribulations of family life. Later, he starred in the drama series Spy Trap.

Born in London in 1925, Daneman ­ whose German grandfather had settled in England before the First World War ­ intended to become a painter and studied fine art at Reading University, but the dramatic society there instilled in him a love of acting. This was developed further in troop shows during Second World War service with the RAF.

Daneman subsequently won a scholarship to train at Rada and made his professional stage début as the front legs of a horse in the pantomime Alice in Wonderland at the New Theatre, Bromley (1947). He made his first London appearance as a soldier in Royal Highness (Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, 1949), then gained experience in repertory theatre with the Bristol Old Vic and Birmingham Rep.

During three stints with the Old Vic company, Daneman took many prominent Shakespearean roles, including Feste in Twelfth Night and Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew (1953-55), the title role in Henry VI, Parts I, II and III, the Fool in King Lear, Sir Toby Belch in Twelfth Night and Lord Chamberlain in Henry VIII (1957-58), Malvolio in Twelfth Night (1961-62) and the title roles in Dr Faustus and Richard III.

His West End roles included Faulkland in The Rivals (Saville Theatre, 1956), King Arthur in Camelot (Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, 1965), Captain Hook and Mr Darling in the musical Peter Pan (Scala Theatre, 1967) and Eric in Don't Start Without Me (Garrick Theatre, 1971). Daneman was also the original Vladimir in Waiting for Godot at the Arts Theatre (1955).

Although his film roles were few and generally small, in pictures such as the melodrama Time Without Pity (1956) and the black comedy How I Won the War (1967), he did play Sergeant Robert Maxfield in Zulu (1964) and Czar Nicholas II in Oh! What a Lovely War (1969).

He was more prominent on television, making his earliest appearances in episodes of The Edgar Wallace Mysteries (1960, 1962) and An Age of Kings (1960), Michael Hayes's acclaimed BBC series that ran Shakespeare's plays together to cover 86 years of English history and the lives of seven monarchs.

But Daneman initially became best known on television in sitcoms, starting with Corrigan Blake (1963), in which he played Wallace St John Smith, aristocratic sidekick to the womanising cockney of the title (John Turner). Then, as Wendy Craig's husband in Richard Waring's Not in Front of the Children (1967), Daneman starred in one of the most popular comedies of its day.

The middle-class couple Henry and Jennifer Corner, their son and two daughters first featured in the pilot House in a Tree (Comedy Playhouse, 1967). The BBC series won audiences of more than 10 million, continued for a further three series and launched Wendy Craig into a similar role in two other comedy series created by Waring.

However, Daneman was replaced in his role by Ronald Hines after the first series of Not in Front of the Children because he switched to ITV to play Ronald Baldock in Donald Churchill's sitcom Never a Cross Word (1968-69). When Ronald resigned from his job after being demoted, his scatter-brained wife, Deirdre (Nyree Dawn Porter), became the breadwinner in the suburban household. Barbara Murray took over the role of Daneman's wife for a second series. It was one of the new London ITV company LWT's first successful sitcoms.

Daneman later showed his talent for straight acting by starring as Commander Ryan in the BBC Second World War counter-espionage drama Spy Trap (1972-75). The actor's classical background also made him ideal for the television roles of the Duke of Milan in The Two Gentlemen of Verona (1983), the King in Roman Holiday (1987), Bo Brammell in the John Le Carré mini-series A Perfect Spy (1987), Mervyn Sloan in the Alan Bleasdale drama G.B.H. (1991), and Douglas Hurd in Thatcher: the final days (1991).

Daneman drew on his experience of recovering from a heart attack at the age of 53 to write the comedy-drama Affairs of the Heart (1983), starring Derek Fowlds, and a novel, If I Only Had Wings (1995). He also played Bilbo Baggins in a BBC radio adaptation of The Hobbit.