| Biography | Brian Glover was an English character actor, writer and wrestler. Glover was a professional wrestler, teacher, and finally a film, television and stage actor. He once said, "You play to your strengths in this game, and my strength is as a bald-headed, rough-looking Yorkshireman".
He attended the University of Sheffield,where he supplemented his student grant with appearances as a professional wrestler, going under the ring name "Leon Arras the Man From Paris". He adopted that name from a wrestler who didn't turn up to a match one night who Glover stood in for. His wrestling style incorporated a lot of comedy, including the catchphrases "ask 'im ref" and "'ows about that then". In 1954 he became a teacher at Barnsley Grammar School, where he had been a pupil. He taught English and French from 1954 until 1970, some of it at Longcar Central School where he met Barry Hines who was also teaching.
Glover's first acting job came playing Mr Sugden, the comically overbearing sports teacher in Ken Loach's film Kes His large bald head, stocky build, and distinctive Yorkshire accent, garnered him many roles as tough guys and criminals. He played Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1981) and had a recurring role in the classic sitcom Porridge. He lent his voice to a number of animated characters, including the "gaffer" of the "Tetley Tea Folk" in a long-running series of television advertisements for Tetley tea, the voice behind the slogan, 'Bread with nowt taken out' for Allinson's bakery and the voice of "Big Pig", the mascot for the long running Now That's What I Call Music! album series. He also appeared in An American Werewolf in London, The First Great Train Robbery, Jabberwocky, Alien 3, Leon the Pig Farmer and as General Douglas in a Bollywood hit 1942: A Love Story. |