Harry Landis

Harry Landis was an English character actor of Polish parentage, born in impoverished circumstances in the Jewish East End of London. As a youngster, he worked a variety of short-lived jobs, including in a café pouring tea, as a window cleaner and as a milkman. His love of theater eventually led him to performing with a variety troupe during the war years, mostly in parks and air raid shelters. At the age of twenty and having completed his military service, Landis received a grant from the London County Council to study for three years at the Central School of Speech and Drama. He then acted with the Elizabethan Theatre Company (in Shakespearean roles) and in repertory theatre before making his screen bow in 1955. Landis was essentially regarded as a 'working class actor' and cast accordingly. One of his first leading roles was in Arnold Wesker's play The Kitchen. He later also turned to direction, notably with Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman at the Unity Theatre in 1966 and in the