Vincent Ball

Ball was born in Wee Waa, New South Wales in 1923, to a father who worked as a linesman on the railways. He says he wanted to be an actor from an early age, particularly a "cowboy in the movies".[2]

With the outbreak of the Second World War, he left his job with the Australian General Electric Company and after military training in Canada became a wireless air gunner with the Royal Australian Air Force serving in Britain.[2]

After the war he returned to Australia and his old job in 1945 but soon decided to try amateur dramatics. To correct his accent which had now morphed into part Canadian, part Cockney and part Australian he sought out elocution lessons - where he met (and later married) his teacher, leading Sydney actress Doreen Harrop; they have three children and live at Chittaway Point, New South Wales.[1][3]

He began writing letters asking for auditions. One of these was to the Rank Organisation who, impressed with his enthusiasm, gave him a job as stand in for Donald Houston in an underwater fight with an octopus in the 1949 British version of film The Blue Lagoon.[4][5][1] He was then cast as Jack Warner's son in Smiling Irish Eyes.[6]

He then won a scholarship to RADA[7] from there now having relocated living in Stowting, Kent he appeared mostly in supporting and uncredited roles in the UK for the next two and a half decades. He was a juvenile lead in Rain Before Seven, Barnett's Folly and Nitro, before moving into slightly larger parts in films such as A Town Like Alice, Robbery Under Arms, and Danger Within.[8] His television credits in Britain include: Compact, Man in a Suitcase, The Troubleshooters, Dixon of Dock Green, and a recurring role on the long-running UK soap opera Crossroads.[9][10]

Ball was honoured with the OAM in the 2016 honours list.[16]

• Vincent Ball at IMDb