Clive Dunn

Clive Robert Bertram Dunn (born Robert Bertram Dunn; 9 January 1920 – 6 November 2012) was an English actor. Although he was only 48 and one of the youngest cast members, he was cast in a role many years his senior, as the elderly Lance Corporal Jones in the BBC sitcom Dad's Army, which ran for nine series and 80 episodes between 1968 and 1977. As a recording artist, he achieved a number 1 on the UK Singles Chart in 1971 with "Grandad". Dunn started his acting career in 1935, but this was interrupted by the Second World War, in which he served as a trooper in the 4th Queen's Own Hussars. In 1941, the regiment was forced to surrender after it was overrun during the Greek campaign, and Dunn was held as a POW in Austria for the next four years. After the war, Dunn resumed his acting career in repertory theatre. He made his first television appearance in 1951 as the man in the pub in Surprise Attack, a short film commissioned by the Ministry of Health. Dunn appeared in both series of The Tony Hancock Show and made many appearances with Tony Hancock, Michael Bentine, Dora Bryan and Dick Emery, among others, before winning the role of Jones in Dad's Army in 1968. After Dad's Army ended, Dunn capitalised on his reputation for playing elderly character roles by playing the lead character Charlie Quick, in the slapstick children's TV series Grandad, from 1979 to 1984.