Philip Stainton

Philip Stainton was an English actor who began in repertory before finding regular work after the war in small and supporting roles in cinema features. He became a familiar presence in Ealing comedies and in large international productions, and was usually cast as a policeman, friendly or exasperated, though he also took comic and serious parts in British and Australian projects. John Ford directed him twice and John Huston once, on European or overseas locations. A touring company staging Agatha Christie's Witness for the Prosecution brought him to Australia for the first time. In the late 1950s he moved there to appear in live plays for television as the new medium was taking hold there, and between 1957 and 1959 he headlined Take That, which went out in Melbourne on HSV-7 and is described as the first Australian sitcom. He also adapted and produced the gaslight melodrama East Lynne. He died in 1961.