The stocky, bland-faced British character actor and comedian was the son of music hall comic Johnny Dwyer. He was on stage from the age of ten, in films at fifteen.
For Charters and Caldicott fans he played the part of a Batman in It’s Not Cricket 1949.
One of his earliest roles was in Will Hay’s The Goose Steps out film in 1942 where he played the part of a German soldier. A succession of roles in other films followed including In Which We Serve 1942, It Started at Midnight 1943, The Way Ahead 1944, I See A Dark Stranger 1946, Piccadilly Incident 1946, Lilli Marlene 1950, Laughter in Paradise 1951 and Where There’s A Will 1955. In 1959 he played the part of the Milkman in the Kenneth More version of The 39 Steps. From the 1960’s onwards most of his roles were in TV productions including Citizen James, Steptoe and Son, Emergency Ward 10, You’re Only Young Twice, Z Cars, Coronation Street and of course one of his most familiar roles as the grumpy Mr Partridge in Hi-de-Hi.