Wissenswertes

Noted for his vast and unique collection of teddy bears.

Author of several humourous books, mostly autobiographical, but also including the standard text on the subject of teddy bears.

Served with the Royal Navy during World War II, commanding an anti-aircraft vessel in the Mediterranean. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1945.

In the early 1930s, playing a tiny role in a play called "England Expects", Bull was startled, whilst changing in his dressing-room after the performance, by a stranger, who told him that his performance that night had been the worst he, the stranger, had ever seen. The stranger was Robert Morley; they became close friends immediately, a friendship which lasted until Bull's death over fifty years later.

Son of Sir William Bull, MP for South Hammersmith for 30 years.

Heavyweight British character actor, a former journalist. First on stage in London in 1933, two years later on Broadway. Acted on screen in both straight and comedy parts.

In "The African Queen", he was dubbed by Walter Rilla.

He claimed that the sentence most often addressed to him by strangers was, "I know the face, but...", which he said was the inevitable lot of a small-part actor in Britain. He eventually wrote an amusing autobiographical book using this unfinished sentence as its title.

He sold the film rights to his comic wartime memoir, "To Sea In A Sieve", to an American film company, and was amused when they suggested that he might be played on-screen, not by himself, but by his friend (and wartime comrade-in-arms) Alec Guinness, who looked nothing like him.

He claimed to have a firm belief in astrology, and, in his later years, was the proprietor of a shop in the King's Road, Chelsea, which specialized in this subject.

Appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Tom Jones (1963), Dr. Seltsam oder: Wie ich lernte, die Bombe zu lieben (1964) and Dr. Dolittle (1998). Of those, Tom Jones (1963) is a winner in the category.

He often claimed that his first film had been made in Hollywood - "Marie Antoinette" (1938), also the debut in films of his friend Robert Morley. He also usually added that he had been entirely cut out from the film. In fact, he had been in eight previous films in Britain (all in uncredited roles) and can still be seen briefly in the Hollywood film.

He has appeared in two films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant: African Queen (1951) and Dr. Seltsam oder: Wie ich lernte, die Bombe zu lieben (1964).

In the 1960s he made a spoken word recording for Minerva Records in which he read extracts from his Teddy Bear book, "Bear With Me".

His brothers were Anthony, George and Stephen.

His favourite parts were Edward Tappercoom in the play The Lady's Not for Burning and Henry Jelliwell in the play Springtime For Henry.