Timothy Dingwall Bateson (3 April 1926 – 15 September 2009) was an English actor.

Life and career

Born in London, the son of solicitor Dingwall Latham Bateson and the great-nephew of rugby player Harold Dingwall Bateson, he was educated at Lockers Park School in Hertfordshire, Uppingham School in Rutland and Wadham College, Oxford. At Oxford, he read history, rowed cox for the Wadham College Boat Club during Eights Week and performed in the Oxford University Dramatic Society. Bateson's stage credits included the first British production of Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot in 1955 at the Arts Theatre in London in a production directed by Peter Hall. In 1957 he starred in the BBC adventure serial The Adventures of Peter Simple. He appeared in many film, television and radio productions including The Avengers, The Cadfael Chronicles, Doctor Who (in the serial entitled "The Ribos Operation") and Labyrinth. He also provided the voices for several characters in the children's TV series TUGS (1989). Most notably, he provided the voice of O.J., the oldest member of the Star Fleet. Since 1994, he did the voice of Measley from the audiotape version of The Animals of Farthing Wood. Bateson was featured in many productions of Focus on the Family Radio Theater. Among his appearances on the program were in A Christmas Carol (1996), where he doubled as narrator and as the Ghost of Christmas Present; Dietrich Bonhoeffer: The Cost Of Freedom (1997), portraying Dr. Karl Bonhoeffer; Ben-Hur (2001), portraying Balthasar; Father Gilbert Mysteries: The Silver Cord (2004), portraying Mr. Lehman; and Silas Marner (2007), portraying Mr. Macey. He voiced the house-elf Kreacher in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, his last work.

Family and death

In 1953, Bateson married former actress Sheila Shand Gibbs, with whom he had three children, Elizabeth, Andrew and Caroline. He and his wife were committed Christians. He died in London aged 83, on 15 September 2009.

Selected filmography