Gordon Rollings

Who was Gordon Rollings?

Gordon Charles Rollings was a British actor who mainly appeared on television, but also appeared on-stage and in feature films. He was born in Batley, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England and started his career in radio in Israel. He later trained as a clown in Paris, appearing in the Medrano Circus.

Rollings made an uncredited screen appearance in the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night. He played the man in the pub who is shocked to find that Ringo has thrown a dart into his lunch.

Then after a number of small parts in TV shows such as Z-Cars in the early 1960s, on 21 April 1964, he was one of the first presenters of BBC 2's daily programme for young children, Play School, alongside Virginia Stride. In the same year he played the character of Charlie Moffitt in Coronation Street. He was a storyteller in Jackanory in 1966-67, reading among others, the story of Worzel Gummidge. He later narrated The Herbs, and as the character Arkwright with his small dog, Tonto, in the adverts for John Smith's Bitter.