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Alfie Bass

Durable, diminutive, immensely endearing character player of British and international films. Bass made his film debut in 1945's "Johnny Frenchman" and soon became a valuable fixture in often comical supporting roles, typically as feisty, working-class, often Cockney blokes. He was very fine as one of a group of soldiers keeping the news of imminent death from a hospitalized comrade in the touching "The Hasty Heart" (1949), but Bass is perhaps most fondly remembered as Shorty, a delightfully larcenous member of "The Lavender Hill Mob" (1951). He was busiest in films in the 1950s and 60s in films ranging from "Svengali" (1954) to "Help!" (1965, as the doorman), from an entry in the endless knockabout "carry on" series, "Carry on Admiral" (1957) to "Alfie" (1968, not in the title role), but his feature credits extend into the early 80s with the likes of "Moonraker" (1979).