A. E. Matthews

Alfred Edward Matthews (22 November 186925 July 1960), known as A. E. Matthews, was an English actor who played numerous character roles on the stage and in film for eight decades. Already middle-aged when films began production, he enjoyed increasing renown from World War II onwards as one of the British cinema's most famous crotchety, and sometimes rascally, old men. Biography Matthews was born in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Nicknamed "Matty", he was christened Alfred Edward Matthews. A prominent stage actor by his mid-40s, Matthews was among several theatre figures who then began a film career during the silent era with the British Actors Film Company, a production company that operated between 1916 and 1923. Matthews toured during World War II in The First Mrs. Fraser, with Dame Marie Tempest and Barry Morse, and was later cast in the extremely popular films Carry On Admiral, Doctor at Large and Around the World in 80 Days, in which he played a mainstay of the Reform Club.