Tim Seely

English actor (1935–2024)

Major Frank Seely
Vera Birkin

Relatives

Freda Dudley Ward (maternal aunt)
Sir Charles Seely, 1st Baronet (great-grandfather)
Sir Thomas Birkin, 1st Baronet (great-grandfather)

Timothy Ward Seely^[1] (10 June 1935 – 18 May 2024) was an English film, radio, television and theatre actor.

Background

Seely was the son of the late Major Frank James Wriothesley Seely (1901–1956), and a great-grandson of Sir Charles Seely, 1st Baronet. His mother was Vera Lilian Birkin, daughter of British Colonel Charles Wilfred Birkin (fourth son of a lace embroidery and tableware magnate of Nottingham, Sir Thomas Isaac Birkin)^[2]^[3] and his American wife, Claire Lloyd Birkin (née Howe). His aunt was Freda Dudley Ward, a mistress of King Edward VIII and wife of William Dudley Ward.

Seely studied at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.^[4]

Seely died on 18 May 2024, at the age of 88.^[5]^[6]

Career

In 1957, he made his theatre debut in the play Tea and Sympathy at the London Comedy Theatre. Seely played the young Tom Lee, who fell in love with the senior Laura, played by Elizabeth Sellars.^[7] He played the same role in the adaptation at New Shakespeare Theatre, Liverpool.^[4] There he also played Rodolfo in Arthur Miller's A View From the Bridge.^[4] In 1958, he acted alongside Maggie Smith at the London St Martin's Theatre in an adaptation of The Stepmother.^[4]

Seely was member of the BBC Radio Drama Company, with which he acted the title role in Pericles, Prince of Tyre.^[4] He also had roles in various Shakespeare plays, including as Baptista in The Taming of the Shrew, Capulet in Romeo and Juliet, Polonius in Hamlet, Leonato in Much Ado About Nothing and the King of France in All's Well That Ends Well.^[4]

In the late 1950s, he also took roles in film and television productions. One of his more prominent roles was as Midshipmen Ned Young in the 1962 version of Mutiny on the Bounty, where Seely appeared alongside Marlon Brando and Trevor Howard.

Filmography and television work

This film-related list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (January 2013)

1958: Sally's Irish Rogue – Luke Carey
1958–1960: Armchair Theatre (television series, three episodes) – Albert Strachan / Seamus MacGonigal / Ralph
1959: The Offshore Island (TV Movie) – James Verney
1960: Please Turn Over – Robert Hughes
1960: The Mystery of Edwin Drood (television series, five episodes) – Edwin Drood
1962: Mutiny on the Bounty – Midshipman Edward 'Ned' Young
1979: Agatha – Capt. Rankin
1979–1981: Play for Today (television series, three episodes) – Andrew Oliphant, Father / Major / Captain Jennings
1985: Laughterhouse – Landowner
1985: Plenty – Sir Charles Curry
1990: Strike It Rich – Arnold
1991: King Ralph – King of England
1993: Lipstick on Your Collar (television series, two episodes) – Brigadier
1995: Annie: A Royal Adventure! (TV Movie) – The King
2004: Vanity Fair – Doctor
2006: Tess: A Tale of Love and Darkness (Short) – Old Man (final film role)

References

^ Michael Rhodes [@migrhodes] (4 June 2024). "Actor Timothy Ward Seely has died on 18 May 2024, aged 88" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
^ "Bygones: The lace dynasty that made Nottingham". Nottingham Post. 13 April 2009. Retrieved 21 September 2015.^{[permanent dead link]}
^ Anonymous. Obituary for her cousin Bindy Lambton, or the former Countess of Durham, published in The Daily Telegraph on 18 February 2003. [1]
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^{[unreliable source?]} Staff (undated) "Tim Seely". calvertonvillage.com. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
^ "Timothy Ward Seely 1935–2024". Peerage News. 4 June 2024. Retrieved 5 June 2024.
^ "Timothy Ward Seely". The Telegraph. 4 June 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
^ Staff (25 May 1957). "'The Doll' Makes London History". The Age (via Google News). Retrieved 10 January 2013. "...and Tim Seely, a 21-year-old actor straight from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art as the boy."