Bill Blewitt

Bill Blewitt was a Cornish postman 'discovered' by film-maker Harry Watt and cast in his 1936 film The Saving of Bill Blewitt. The documentary was about the Post Office Savings Bank and featured Blewitt and the villagers of Mousehole in Cornwall. Assistant director Pat Jackson remembered Blewitt's "mesmeric gift of the gab, a glorious Cornish accent, twinkling blue eyes, a grin as broad as 'Popeye' and the charismatic charm of the Celt."[1] Charles Crichton remembered Blewitt as a natural actor and storyteller.[2]

Bill Blewitt in The Saving of Bill Blewitt (1936)

Blewitt went on to feature in several more films,[3] sometimes as a support actor but also playing a major role, such as the father in the 1945 canal documentary Painted Boats

Filmography

References
  1. The Saving of Bill Blewitt at the BFI's Film Online
  2. 1987 Interview with Charles Crichton
  3. The Guardian, Scott Anthony, Ealing's salt-of-the-earth film star, 13 March 2009
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