Jim Dale Movies and Career Information

Jim Dale, MBE (born James Smith on 15 August 1935) is an English actor, voice artist, singer and songwriter. He is best known in the United Kingdom for his many appearances in the Carry On series of films and in the US for narrating the Harry Potter audiobook series, for which he received two Grammy Awards, and the ABC series Pushing Daisies. In the 1970s Dale was a member of Laurence Olivier's National Theatre Company. Dale was born James Smith to William Henry Smith and Miriam Jean Wells in Rothwell, Northamptonshire, England. After attending Kettering Grammar School there, he performed two years national service in the Royal Air Force. He trained as a ballet dancer before his debut as a stage comic in 1951. As a songwriter Dale is best remembered as the lyricist for the movie theme Georgy Girl, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1966. The song (performed by The Seekers) reached number 2 in the US charts the following year. He also wrote lyrics for the title song of the movie Shalako and for Joseph Andrews, Twinky and A Winter's Tale. Several of his songs entered the UK singles chart including Be My Girl (1957)(UK # 2in 1957), Just Born (1958), Crazy Dream (1958) and