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The son of a country chemist, the British actor Donald Sinden intended to pursue a career in architecture but was spotted in an amateur theatrical production and asked to join a company that entertained the troops during World War II .
He performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He was awarded the CBE in the 1979 Queens New Year Honours List and created a Knight Bachelor in the 1997 Queens Birthday Honours List for his services to drama.
He was the father of Jeremy Sinden and Marc Sinden. He was the brother of Leon Sinden.
He trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, whose alumni include Terence Stamp , Hugh Bonneville , Rupert Friend , Angela Lansbury , Matthew Goode , Sue Johnston , Minnie Driver , Nicholas Courtney and Julian Fellowes.
He was nominated for Broadways 1976 Tony Award as Best Actor (Play) for "Habeas Corpus.".
When he first became a stage actor, his speaking voice was comparatively high-pitched so he had voice coaching to lower it and make it more imposing and sonorous. When he later started acting in films, his modified voice was too deep for the young parts that he was auditioning for, so he had further voice coaching to raise it about an octave. His present voice is pitched somewhere between these two extremes.
"Spitting Image" created a puppet of him and he featured in several of their sketches. In one scene, he is in a restaurant and asks "Do you serve a ham salad?", to which the waiter replies "Yes, we serve salad to anyone".
He played Captain Hook on stage.
He was brought up in Ditching, Sussex.
His father, brother and sister were keen actors and he and his mother had to watch them perform.
When his cousin Frank was called up for the RAFduring WWII he was in mid rehearsal for a play and asked Donald to take over his role.
Because he had negative buoyancy when he was filming The Cruel Sea and had to be in the water, he lay on top of a stuntman.
He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1946 despite having hated Shakespeare when he was at school.
When I meet people they say "I thought you put that voice on for TV".
