Michael Ripper

Michael Ripper (27 January 1913 – 28 June 2000) was an English character actor born in Portsmouth. He began his film career in quota quickies in the 1930s and until the late 1950s was virtually unknown. Ripper became a mainstay in Hammer Film Productions beginning with X the Unknown in 1956. He subsequently played a variety of coachmen, peasants, tavern keepers, pirates and sidekicks in such films as The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Mummy ... more

Michael Ripper (27 January 1913 – 28 June 2000) was an English character actor born in Portsmouth. He began his film career in quota quickies in the 1930s and until the late 1950s was virtually unknown. Ripper became a mainstay in Hammer Film Productions beginning with X the Unknown in 1956. He subsequently played a variety of coachmen, peasants, tavern keepers, pirates and sidekicks in such films as The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), The Mummy (1959), Brides of Dracula (1960), The Camp on Blood Island (1958), Captain Clegg (1962), The Scarlet Blade (1963), The Mummy's Shroud (1967), and Plague of the Zombies (1966). Occasionally he was disguised almost beyond recognition, yet his high-pitched, raspy voice remained unmistakable. Some of his parts were little better than glorified bits (as in Curse of the Mummy's Tomb), but his last role for Hammer Films was a decent-sized supporting part as a landlord in Scars of Dracula in 1970. Although the Hammer horrors tend to be associated with... less