Cole, George (1925- )

English actor. A comic player of flashy and incompetent minor crooks in the St Trinian's farces, commencing with The Belles of St Trinian's (1954) and Too Many Crooks (1959), he has also starred in many television roles, most notably as Arthur Daley in the long-running series Minder (1979-94).

Cole was born in South London, and educated in Morden. He was ‘discovered’ as a teenager by the Scottish actor Alastair Sim when they starred together in the West End stage play Cottage to Let (1941) and the subsequent film version (1941). He appeared in Laurence Olivier's Henry V (1944) and achieved popular recognition in radio's A Life of Bliss. His television work includes A Man of Our Times (1968), The Bounder (1982-83), Blott on the Landscape (1985), Root into Europe (1992), and My Good Friend (1995).