Nicholas Smith Movies and Career Information

Nicholas Smith (born 5 March 1934) is an English actor who is best known for playing the bald, jug-eared manager Mr. Rumbold in the sitcom Are You Being Served? His father was a chartered surveyor and he attended a preparatory school and St. John's School, Leatherhead. He learnt to play musical instruments, studied singing and trained as an actor at RADA. He then appeared in repertory theatres, on the West End stage, At the Bristol Old Vic and on Broadway. His earliest TV roles were as a non-speaking extra in various ITV programmes. He got his first speaking role in 1964, in the BBC's Doctor Who serial The Dalek Invasion of Earth. Smith persuaded the serial's director Richard Martin to expand the role, so that his character, Wells, appeared in three of the serial's six episodes instead of only one or two as originally scripted. This was followed by small roles in many other adventure series, such as The Saint, The Avengers, The Champions and Ace of Wands. Are You Being Served? began in 1972, with Smith playing Mr. Cuthbert Rumbold, the manager of the menswear and ladieswear departments in a large fictional London store called Grace Brothers. He remained with the programme until its